Operation Change Hazard launches 12-week wellness program for women

A free, 12-week wellness program for women took root at The Event Center in Hazard, with organizers aiming at 50 participants ages 40 and older who live with chronic conditions and limited mobility. Operation Change Hazard ran from 5 to 8 p.m. June 4 at 101 Town and Country Lane, putting a structured health effort in the middle of Perry County rather than asking residents to travel elsewhere for it.

Movement Is Life describes Operation Change as a community-based behavioral change program built around educational sessions, culturally tailored physical activity and motivational interviewing. The organization says the model has touched the lives of more than 500 people across six U.S. communities, including Hazard, and says each local team leader comes from the community where the program is implemented.

The target group is specific for a reason. Movement Is Life says the program was designed for 50 women ages 40 and older who are underrepresented minorities or live in rural communities and who have at least one comorbid condition, such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or depression, along with limited mobility caused by joint pain. That focus matched the public-health reality in Perry County, where updated county data were released March 25 using 2023 figures and the county’s overall health score is 33 out of 100.

For Hazard, the venue mattered as much as the curriculum. The Event Center on Town and Country Lane gave the program a familiar, central location in a county seat founded in 1884, in Perry County, which was founded in 1820. A local setting can cut down on the practical barriers that often keep people from regular wellness efforts, including cost, transportation and the challenge of finding a program that feels relevant to daily life in rural eastern Kentucky.

The 12-week format also set Operation Change Hazard apart from one-night health talks or general awareness events. Instead of a single presentation, the program was built to bring women back week after week, giving participants repeated contact, built-in accountability and a chance to turn small changes into routine. For a county facing ongoing chronic disease concerns, that kind of steady structure offered something more durable than a wellness slogan: a chance to change habits in a place where health care access and everyday support are often harder to sustain.