 Welcome to our presentation, Faith Communities Alive, How-To Module for Volunteer Leaders. This module is designed to help volunteer leaders recruit and engage volunteers, create goals and policies for your faith community, and much more. This module will discuss the following, recruiting and engaging volunteers, roles and responsibilities of volunteer leaders, establishing yearly goals and policies, sample goals and policies, making your wish list, using resources, and promoting faith communities alive. Let's begin with our mission, vision and goal. We hope to help transform our faith communities to make active living and healthy eating the easy choice. We envision individuals and families embracing the concept of health within a faith community setting as it encompasses body, mind and spirit. Finally, our goal is to engage the Fargo-Moorhead Area community in faith communities alive by providing collaborative training, education, tools and support that address healthful eating and physical activity to promote overall well-being. The initiative is guided by a group of community partners offering knowledge in their area of expertise. We are not intending to provide medical advice. The materials the program uses to promote health and wellness activities are non-commercial and evidence-based. For faith communities alive to be successful at your faith community, you need to recruit volunteers. Begin by posting information about faith communities alive on your faith community's bulletin board or include an insert in the bulletin. Ask around. Many people may be interested in being a part of faith communities alive but may not know about the program. Check with clergy members or faith community leaders to see if they would be willing to mention faith communities alive during services or at socials. Be sure to inform your faith community staff about faith communities alive. They may be interested in being a part of faith communities alive or can help spread the word. A group of three to five volunteers is a good start but don't forget that you can continue to recruit the whole year. The more volunteers you have, the more great ideas and suggestions you will get. Get volunteers excited about being a part of faith communities alive. You can do this by sharing the importance of nutrition and physical activity. Consider these statistics. Obesity rates are at an all-time high and obesity is linked to many chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Among U.S. adults, 78.4% consider themselves Christians. Therefore, a faith-based setting such as a church has the potential to reach many people by making it a good location to promote nutrition and physical activity. Faith communities alive cannot be successful with the work of only the volunteer leader. It should be a team effort. Assign your volunteers a task and ask for their ideas on promoting nutrition and physical activity at your faith community. What are your roles and responsibilities as a volunteer leader? You will need help from others so activate other volunteers. Hold meetings with your volunteer team and get faith community members involved and excited about faith communities alive. Be sure to communicate with staff at your faith community and get ideas from other faith communities that participate in faith communities alive. Set a goal to meet with your volunteer team at least monthly to share ideas and discuss upcoming events. Share upcoming events via your faith communities bulletin board, bulletin inserts, Facebook page, etc. Be sure to communicate with staff members from your faith community such as pastors, parish nurses, and secretaries. See what other faith communities are doing. This is a great way to get ideas for activities or policies to incorporate at your faith community. You can find ideas via the newsletter or Facebook page. Think about these questions. Does your faith community have goals established? Did you meet your goals from last year? Now ask yourself, how does my faith community want to support healthy eating? How does my faith community want to promote physical activity? Examples of supporting healthy eating include making sure water is available at all meals or at your other faith communities social events, offering fruits and vegetables during meals and socials, offering healthful snacks, having a healthful food potluck, cutting sweet treats in small pieces, and offering healthful cooking classes. Examples of promoting physical activity include holding weekly exercise classes such as Zumba or yoga at your faith community, starting a walking group with members at your faith community, creating fun youth group activities such as raking leaves or shelving snow, and opening your faith community's gym if you have one available. This list provides some ideas of policies and goals you may want to implement at your faith community. For example, healthful food or drink options will be served at all events and socials that offer food or drinks. Regular physical activity opportunities such as walking groups or weekly exercise classes will be offered. Sample goals include implementing a community garden, offering educational classes on nutrition and physical activity, establishing a walking group, or offering a food preservation workshop. When funding is available, we offer items from a wish list to help support your goals and policies. Be sure to get ideas and feedback from community members and ask your faith community for their ideas. Be sure to use your resources. The Faith Communities Alive Facebook page provides useful resources and tips that are posted regularly. The Faith Communities Alive webpage gives you access to a variety of information about food safety, gardening, nutrition, and much more. We also post the newsletters and table tents on this site. The newsletters provide you with upcoming events, recipes, and much more. Be sure to check the page out each month. The table tents include nutrition and physical activity tips as well as scripture passages. These can be set out at meals, socials, or whenever. Share information regarding Faith Communities Alive on your Faith Communities Facebook page or website. Include upcoming activities and events and share your Faith Communities' goals and policies. Bolton Boards are another great way to promote Faith Communities Alive. They make a great place to post the newsletter, recipes, and handouts. We invite you to see the contacts on the website. We are here to help you. Finally, thank you for your interest and efforts. You are making a difference.