The Healthy Living Festival was identified by the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Action Team as a program that, when combined with other actions in our community, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in awareness of community resources in our Jackson County. The Healthy Living Festival is an annual health fair that brings together businesses and organizations with a health-theme to offer information, screenings, and more to the residents of Jackson County. This strategy, though not evidence-based, has been implemented in Jackson County since 2011 with great success and participation.

The audience for this strategy is the community at large. This strategy aims to make a different at the individual level-- increasing knowledge and influence on individual attitudes and beliefs towards health. Implementation will take place community-wide in Jackson County

As 2019 marked the 10th annual Healthy Living Festival, action team members decided to phase out the Healthy Living Festival as we shift to focus on community-wide worksite wellness in 2020 that will include multiple-site health screenings throughout Jackson County. 

The partners for the Healthy Living Festival include:

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of the Healthy Living Festival through the use of Results-Based Accountability^TM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures.  Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for the Healthy Living Festival

• Use program performance measures to ensure ongoing effectiveness and demonstrate success
  • Evaluate the number of screenings conducted, the number of participants, and the pounds of medication received from the Safe Kids Medication Take Back table
• Communicate and engage diverse community organizations
  • Continue to recruit a large variety of community exhibitors and have different focuses each year. Promote a new "draw" each year to increase participation
• Establish a consistent financial base for the program
  • Apply for the Great Smokies Health Foundation grant in 2020, 2021, and 2022 to have funding to pay for food and new aspects of the event 
• Increase community awareness of the program and demonstrate the value of the program to the public
  • Continue strong promotion efforts prior to the event and provide follow up through email, snail mail, billboards, and local media to promote the success of the event

2020 Updates

It was decided after the 2019 Healthy Living Festival (the 10th annual) that the Healthy for Life Action Team would no longer host an annual festival.  The Action Team planned to host community wide screenings coupled with joining a community wide wellness program (see physical activity initiative for more information) in replacement of the health fair.  

2019 Updates

The 10th annual Healthy Living Festival saw 33 vendors with 171 participants.  Free screenings were provided for BMI, blood pressure, HbA1c, and cholesterol and 42 people took part in them.  The WNC Aids Project distributed 18 overdose kits and screened 10 people for HIV and Hep C.  Safe Kids Jackson County took back 22lbs of medication at their Medication Take Back Booth with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.  Western Carolina University Social Work students conducted 44 behavioral health screenings. 

The WNC Aids Project set up at the 10th annual Healthy Living Festival

2018 Updates

The 9th annual Healthy Living Festival had 51 vendors and 228 participants.  There were 49 people who completed screenings, which included BMI, blood pressure, HbA1c, cholesterol, HIV, Hepatitis C, and syphilis. 

Child Care Health Consultants, Cassie Rogers and Meagan Cagle, demonstrate safe sleep practices for infants and young children at the 9th annual Healthy Living Festival

2017 Updates

The Action Team lead a successful Festival with 134 participants and 28 vendors. 44 volunteers completed screenings, which included BMI, blood pressure, HbA1c, cholesterol, HIV, Hepatitis C, and Syphilis.

Charles Easton, ISAP Action Team Chair, speaking to participants at the 8th Annual Healthy Living Festival

2016 Updates

The 7th Annual Healthy Living Festival experienced 165 participants, 38 vendors, with a total of 76 exhibitors in the main festival space.  There were 40 screenings completed, which included HbA1c, blood pressure, height/weight, BMI, and cholesterol.  All screenings were free thanks to donations from Harris Regional Hospital and the Great Smokies Health Foundation.  

Outside of the main festival space, the Red Cross brought their blood donation bus and receiving 14 pints of blood.  The Jackson County Animal Shelter was also present, and they administered 15 rabies vaccinations.