Wellness in the Valley with Dalton Campana

 In this episode of Wellness in the Valley, Guin Fit physical activity coordinator Dalton Campana joins us to talk about Guin Fit’s community design for physical activity strategy and what it means to create places that support movement, connection, and health. He shares how partnerships, planning, and community input are helping improve walkability, active transportation, and access to spaces for physical activity across the Valley. Tune in for a conversation about how healthier communities are built not just through programs, but through the design of the places where we live, work, and move. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello and welcome to Wellness in the Valley, a podcast powered by the Gwynfit Initiative at Youngstown State University. This podcast is all about real people and real stories, the partners and leaders who are helping to make healthy food, movement, and wellness easier and more accessible for everyone in our region, as well as the residents whose lives have been impacted. Each episode brings insight, inspiration, and simple ways to take small steps towards lasting change, because in the valley, wellness truly starts with all of us. I'm your host, Kelly Frazier. Let's get into today's conversation. Hello and welcome to another episode of Wellness in the Valley. Today I am sitting down with Dalton Campana, who is the physical activity coordinator for the Gwynfit Initiative. Hello, Dalton. Hello there. Hi. So can you tell me a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yeah, so for the physical activity coordinator, I just collaborate with community partners throughout Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana County to try to find safe and accessible routes to everyday destinations to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles and living.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Great. Okay. So what drew you to Gwynfit and the work around physical activity and access?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Physical activity, walkability, infrastructure design, things like that have always been a passion of mine. My health background, I love being outdoors, physical walking. That's really my thing. It's been promoted in my family my whole life. So I wanted to share my knowledge and try to make a difference in the community by um focusing on infrastructure design to get people out and about to everyday destinations just because it's so important to be outside and to feel safe and to feel safe walking, feeling safe being outdoors, and feeling safe just walking to the store, walking to a park, and just getting the benefits from that.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Right. Absolutely. So how do you define success when it comes to helping the community move more?

SPEAKER_02 2:07

I would define success by promoting my knowledge and making people more aware about how to get to everyday destinations, just because I feel like if people don't know, they don't really understand what to look for to make a difference in the community. Um so basically really just like identifying like, do I let's sit and be present? Like, do I feel safe walking to this park? Do I feel safe walking and riding my bike in this area? And just being mindful of that. And if they don't, then that's an issue. Um so they should address it or find ways to address it and to seek help.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

What were some of the early goals for the physical activity strategy and how have those goals evolved or shifted?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Early goals would be, I feel, doing demonstration projects. So that was a learning experience for me to understand exactly what it um a safe street demonstration is.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Can you share that a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah, so it's basically building relationships with the community partners to try to identify a location that needs to have infrastructure changes be made or in place to promote safe and accessible walking or biking to everyday to everyday destinations. So creating a temporary design to really get community feedback saying like this needs to be in place to make you know walkability or riding a bike more accessible and easier for community members to do. So creating that temporary design, getting community feedback just to promote it to make a permanent fixture in the future to show like positive results from the community, like this needs to be done.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So more of a this is what could happen type of a thing, or this is what we're thinking about. What are your thoughts? Yes. Yeah. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Which I think is great because like people want to be involved and people want to be a part of something. And be having a temporary design not only gives like a positive feedback, but it also give like, you know, their negative thoughts on it too. So we're taking the community's feedback into account to make that permanent fixture a reality.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Right. So some of those early goals were to do those demonstrations kind of show um what could be um and getting that feedback. So how have those demonstrations evolved or shifted into more permanent?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

So the first demonstration that I was a part of was um, you know, for example, a temporary crosswalk um on Mahoning Avenue going into Trek, and that led to a permanent crosswalk. So people can, you know, feel safe in that area, crossing the street, just knowing there's a crosswalk there so they can grab a cup of coffee and feel safer doing it. Um it also led me to like do other areas working with community partners, for example, like you know, Gwynfit really focusing on taking the lead on making bike Belmont for Belmont Avenue. There is extended bike lanes from um Todd to Gypsy Lane and really understanding the process of how to get the approval for those temporary designs.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So, and I think you know it gets community members more involved with the behind-the-scenes process.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Behind the scene process, yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Um, it's not there's more to when we get the complaint or the feedback or whatever, there's a whole process, and so I think maybe them knowing the process will maybe give a little bit more grace as we work to make these destinations safer.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Because it's it's a lot of work, it's not easy. So, like taking the steps to do it properly requires a lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yes, for sure. Can you share a story where one of the demonstrations, I don't know, like a new sidewalk or bike lane or route made a real difference, made a big difference?

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yeah, so I would say that temporary design for Bike Belmont made a big difference during that bike Belmont event. So when the riders are riding, they felt safer in that area that we had that demonstration, and we got a lot of positive feedback. It didn't lead to a permanent change yet, but it did make a difference for the riders' experience, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Let's kind of shift a little into collaborations. Um, how has collaborations with different agencies and organizations shaped your approach to your strategy?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yeah, so my strategy basically is all about collaboration. So working with Healthy Community Partnership to um really identify what community partners can help me implement some changes or from my work plan or designs and really learning from every group has shaped me into a person that can like really identify how to get these objectives done, if that makes sense. So they're basically without community partnerships or community relations, like the job couldn't get done just because they have that knowledge of how to do it. Right. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Right. Okay. So would you say your approach has maybe shifted to one of more collaboration instead of feeling like you have to shoulder the projects on your own?

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Collaboration is where it's at. Yes. Yes, that's entirely what the job entails, is collaboration. Like without my team for community partners, like it wouldn't be able to get done.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. So what lessons have you learned about making active living equitable and sustainable?

SPEAKER_02 7:52

That it's a process and that it's not like immediate results, and that you need to work with other people, you need to be a community player, um, you need to put in the work and really understand that immediate results only come from putting in like the little things in the timeline. Um, so it's not like one and done. Right. And you can't get frustrated by that. Right. Patience. Patience, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So when we talk about demonstrations and infrastructure change to make these everyday destinations more accessible, of course, um, when we look at engagement numbers or participation numbers, that's how we typically would measure success. Like, okay, what we've done here is impactful, a lot of people are using it, great. But how can you measure impact outside of those numbers?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I would say checking back in to see, like, not just like immediately after the demonstration was done, but like if a permanent fixture occurs, maybe reassessing it sometime down the line to see if people are still using that infrastructure change or getting feedback if they still think it's like um beneficial to them. So like longitudinal, no what's the word for it? Longitudinal. Yes, there you go. Um, but assessing that kind of data rather than the immediate data that is in place, just because you want to make sustainable impacts, like sustainable long-term, not just short term.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Right. Fair. So looking forward, if everyone that's listening today took one small step to support a more active community, what would you recommend?

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Being involved, um, asking questions about safer street demonstrations or just like infrastructure tools that you can assess um if it's safe or you know, accessible. For example, like being aware that there are walk audits available, there are park audits so you can really assess to see the quality and safety of getting to everyday destinations or really see the quality of a park if it's safe to even like be a part of. So the education, doing some research and really educating yourself on am I safely walking to the store, am I safely walking to the park, like really being mindful of that, and actually looking at the quality of the parks and the quality of the sidewalks and street to be mindful of that too.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yes. So you mentioned walking, but I know biking is also a part of that. Yes. Um, and you mentioned education and within education that includes participating in the different um education or capacity building events. So I understand that you recently had an event for physical activity. Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yes, and um moving active transportation forward. Um, that was a an event that we have with Healthy Community Partnership. It was a workshop and with the League of American Bicyclists where um community members got to attend to learn more about bike safety, education, and try to make everyday destination through biking safe, accessible, and how to identify permanent changes and promoting permanent changes to biking to every day to everyday destinations. And that's something I helped put together to get community feedback and having as experts from the League of American Bicyclists there to educate the public on that too.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

If that answered the question, yeah, and it looks like you had some pretty uh big people there. Uh-huh. And so that's also another opportunity for residents to be face-to-face or elbow to elbow with the decision makers in the community. Um, so taking part in those types of things will definitely help get the community voice out there and heard. Um, so great. So as we begin to wrap up, what's one thing you wish more people knew about community wellness?

SPEAKER_02 12:07

That you can make a change. Um, you can be more involved too, as long as you're aware of what to look for.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

And if you could describe Gwen Fit in one word or phrase, what would you choose?

SPEAKER_02 12:20

I would say collaborative.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

And what's your hope for the future of the physical activity strategy?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

To have more permanent fixtures in place that promote safety through biking and walking to everyday, to everyday destinations.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Great. And just to kind of throw it out there to the public, to our listeners, if someone has an idea for a location to be assessed and to do a temporary demonstration, who would they get in contact with?

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Um, Healthy Community Partnership, um, and being a part of Healthy Community Partnership, pertaining to the um active transportation team and showing their ideas to them, being a resident leader. Yeah. And then we can, you know, come together as a group through active transportation and see if we can do it for them. Okay. Because the community voices is what matters, like people that want to see change, so we're open to it.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

And so they would just go to their website. Okay. Yeah. Great. Well, Dalton, thank you so much. You've given us a lot of insights, and we're really excited to see what else happens in the physical activity strategy and how our communities can really uh feel the positive impact from the changes that you're uh championing.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

So yes, thank you for having me. Thank you.