Two years ago, the American Council on Exercise began a collaboration with Move to Live More and Special Olympics International to develop and deliver a five-module course entitled Foundations for Community Physical Activity Leaders, plus an additional module called Inclusive Fitness Leadership: Training People with Intellectual Disabilities. [Note that the Community Physical Activity Leader (CPAL) course available for FREE on the ACE website includes all six modules.] 

The CPAL course provides the knowledge and hands-on skills needed to?facilitate physical-activity sessions in your community—outdoors, or in schools, recreation centers, community centers, libraries or places of worship. Through this course, you can learn how to incorporate physical activity into social gatherings in a way that is approachable, yet effective and impactful.

Move to Live More, led by CEO/Founder Amy Bantham, DrPH, MPP, FACSM, recently completed year 2 of the CPAL project. The goal over this time period was to have 100 people complete the online course, and that goal was exceeded by more than 250%, with 360 people doing so.

Another version of the course, a workshop called Lead the Way: Activating Community Physical Activity Leaders, was offered in a live setting where people could participate in-person or virtually. The goal for the workshop was 40 people (30 with intellectual disabilities and 10 without). The actual number of attendees was 74 (33 with intellectual disabilities and 41 without).

While attendance/completion of the course is certainly important, ACE also wanted to evaluate how people felt afterward and what they planned to do with the knowledge they’d gained. Here are some key findings:

• Satisfaction: 94.5% of course participants and 100% of workshop participants said they’d be likely to recommend the course to a friend or family member.
• Confidence: 95.3% of course participants and 100% of workshop participants strongly agreed or agreed that they’d increased their confidence in their ability to get people moving in their community.
• Action: 96.8% of workshop participants plan to use what they learned by leading physical-activity programs in their communities. Similarly, 95.6% of course participants plan to take at least one action to implement the knowledge they gained from the course. These actions involve newly trained Community Physical Activity Leaders assuming the role of educator, leader and/or advocate.
• Inclusion: The decision to combine Foundations for Community Physical Activity Leaders and Inclusive Fitness Leadership: Training People with Intellectual Disabilities into one online course was validated by the fact that 30.8% of course participants selected “learning how to include people with intellectual disabilities in programs” as the most valuable aspect of the course.

Perhaps most importantly, says Dr. Bantham, “a significant percentage of course participants plan to make changes—in education, advocacy or programming—to be more inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities.”

Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, FACSM, CEO of the American Council on Exercise, says, “The outcomes in reach, satisfaction, confidence and especially inclusion are not only impressive but incredibly meaningful and align perfectly with our mission. It’s a powerful testament to what’s possible when organizations with a shared mission of community empowerment and inclusion work together.”

Ultimately, the goal of the CPAL project and all that ACE does is to get more people moving, including people with intellectual disabilities, and the outcomes over these past two years are a great example of how purposeful education can turn theory into practice and make a real difference in people’s lives.

If you are an active exerciser or athlete who wants to inspire and empower others to find joy in physical activity, this course is perfect for you. Learn more here: Community Physical Activity Leader.