Table 3 Themes from Interviews with Directors of Physical Activity-Oriented Projects funded by the West Virginia Growing Healthy Communities mini-grant program, 2017

Commitment to the community

“Having this path there [to the depot] will provide opportunities… we are working with a group called Generation [site county name] and they want to do family fun runs…” (Physical Activity Site 2)

Collaboration to complete the project

“Healthy [site county name] is comprised of several organizations, so it’s not just the hospital and Main Street [site city name]. It’s WVU Extension, the health department, the school system. We got a couple people that are just, um, you know have their own businesses. Like a woman who has her own, her own counseling services. We have a guy who is the graphic designer, so he helps us out a lot. The library is involved. Um, Catholic Charities … we have just a couple of people that are just citizen volunteers.” (Physical Activity Site 1)

Limited time

“I’ve come to learn were never ready because every time there’s a flood, there’s a tree down, so you’re never ready. We do spring we do fall cleanup every year we go out clean up the tires, you know, they just grow [out of the ground]. This fall we’ll do another cleanup and the tires will come out again. So, it’s, it’s, amazing, we can never be ready. We can just never be ready.” (Physical Activity Site 3)

Commitment to economic stimulus

“Well I would tell you that it has increased existing business activity and that places that never or will display one or two kayaks are now displaying multiple kayaks and we see kayaks on top of cars so we know there’s activity…” (Physical Activity Site 3)

Planning barriers

“So we had over 400 people sign-up, um, and we had a good 50 or so at the kick-off and a few at the walks. I think last year was the one where the weather just got hot all a sudden so it did not go great. Yeah, so, we, you know, kept going to the group walks hoping someone would show up, but nobody really did.” (Physical Activity Site 1)

Measurement integration

“We don’t actually do that. I mean, the honest truth is health outcomes are not one of program areas. We measure economic development and that’s where all this other stuff comes in. So it’s, kind of, the, health and wellness activities contribute to economic development and that’s what we measure.” (Physical Activity Site 2)