Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources teamed up this week to launch Keystone Active Zones, a new program designed to help counties promote physical activity for their residents at parks and trails close to home.

The campaign is designed to provide an opportunity to develop community partnerships between recreation, education, health advocates and other non-profit partners and build support for local parks and trails. KAZs feature a web-based inventory to help residents find information about activities at nearby parks and trails, county maps and a passport incentive program to encourage their use.

KAZ partners in addition to DCNR and PANA are the state Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society.

The program will allow users to go to a special Keystone Active Zones website, select their county and search for local parks and trails by activities and amenities. Information will include directions, hours of operation and events.

All counties throughout Pennsylvania are being encouraged to implement the program. DCNR is providing a $50,000 grant to PANA to help support expansion of the program statewide.

To provide start-up guidance, PANA and PRPS will provide a free “How To” training session on implementing and participating in the KAZ campaign.

A local implementation guide will also be available with recommendations on working with the media, developing partnerships, programming ideas and implementing the passport program.

For more information, go to the PANA website or the Keystone Active Zones website.

5/27/2005