Neighborhood Resources
Each resource is identified by type as follows:
Prepared by Center for Weight & Health Staff cwh
Developed by a HEAL Grantee 
Link to external webpage 
Link to PDF document  [Adobe Reader required]
Link to email address 
General
The Food Research and Action Center has released a new resource guide to improve state and local use of federal nutrition programs and help states leverage additional funding. The guide offers strategies for state and local officials to make choices that will maximize federal nutrition benefits to help families and communities.
The Healthy Counties Database allows you to search for model policies, programs, and initiatives that counties nationwide have enacted to promote wellness and help prevent childhood obesity. No need to reinvent the wheel! Find out what your peers in local government have done to enable and encourage nutritious diets, physical activity, and healthy built and social environments.
The National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) has put together a listing of the public health related provisions in the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Topics range from immunization programs and health care workforce training, to clean water and supplemental nutrition programs.
This 140-page guide is designed to help coalitions working to build healthier communities, where people have access to healthy foods, and where being physically active can become a way of life for everyone. It is for coalition leaders and members who are new to this work, as well as those who are applying their experience to a new arena or are working with new partners. Though there are many ways to make change happen in communities; the Roadmap explains these steps, and applies them to working to improve food and physical activity environments in five sectors.
Available as either a single 4MB document or individual chapters:
~ The Roadmap
~ School Environments
~ Neighborhoods
~ After School
~ Health Care
~ Marketing and Advertising
How does the community food environment influence the food choices of low-income children and their families? The "Links Between the Neighborhood Food Environment and Childhood Nutrition," a thoughtful report recently published by the Prevention Institute , identifies key investigations of the neighborhood food environment, examines current efforts to bring about improvements, and discusses new research and policy priorities to improve childhood nutrition.
Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes , a new study by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy , PolicyLink , and UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research , documents a direct correlation between high density of fast-food outlets, low availability of supermarkets, and high prevalence of obesity and diabetes throughout California. Additional information and resources on this topic are available through Strategic Alliance , a statewide coalition of nutrition and activity advocates.
Built Environment/Land Use
This Active Living Research report summarizes a growing body of evidence concerning the role of parks in shaping active lifestyles across a variety of study populations, including children, seniors, lower-income families, specific racial and ethnic groups, and other populations at high risk of being inactive.
In many communities, where safe places to play are few and far between, schools offer a variety of recreational facilities—from gymnasiums and running tracks to sports fields and playgrounds—to meet residents’ needs. But districts often close their property to the public after hours, concerned about security, maintenance, liability, and other costs. The good news is that school districts, local governments, and community-based organizations can share the costs and responsibilities of opening school property to the public after hours through joint use agreements. PHLP’s toolkit helps communities and school districts work together to develop joint use agreements increasing access to recreational facilities on school grounds.
Call notes from the 12/09/08 Public Health Law Practice teleconference; prepared by Center for Weight & Health TA staff. CPTED is a multi-disciplinary approach to preventing and deterring crime with environmental design strategies. The call's speakers included three of the nation’s leading CPTED experts:
~ Julia Ryan [Program Director for the Community Safety Initiative, Local Initiatives Support Corporation] introduced the CPTED concept, described its basic principles, and explained its evolution over the years.
~ Richard Preuss [Community Relations Specialist, Chula Vista Police Department] spoke about Chula Vista's CPTED implementation.
~ Derek Paulsen, PhD [Associate Professor, Criminal Justice and Police Studies Department, Eastern Kentucky University] shared some of his findings of his evaluations of the effectiveness of CPTED.
NeighborSpace is an excellent example of a diverse group of community members in an urban setting coming together to protect, expand, and improve the safety of their neighborhood gardens and parks. It helps community groups protect and secure their community garden or park from potential development, and works in concert with many private and public partners to preserve and expand community managed open space in Chicago.
This 2005 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among many more found on this site or its links, depicts the importance of having safe parks in our communities. Use the the site's search engine to find others.
How can public health advocates and city planners work together to create healthy, sustainable communities? This toolkit provides a progression of steps focused on the general plan, the key land use policy document for California cities and counties. The toolkit details a wide range of strategies, from building relationships and assessing existing conditions to creating and ultimately implementing policy language. Model health language is included to provide specific ideas for how to address health concerns through general plan policies. Download a PDF or (new!) request a printed, bound copy of this toolkit.
This presentation from public health and transportation advocate Mark Fenton provides an excellent overview of the rationale for addressing health through transportation planning, and it presents an overview of his multilevel (individual, through institutional, to public policy) strategy for doing so. This presentation was developed for his work with Ohio Parks and Recreation.
Community Gardens
The National Policy and Legal Analysis Network (NPLAN) has posted a number of new resources on their website, including a Fact Sheet and Policy Packet on land use protections for community gardens.
This 8-page document from Denver Urban Gardens provides tips for developing and maintaining a community garden. Although some of the information is specific to the Denver area, much of it would be applicable to any community. Topics include:
~ Steps to Starting a Garden
~ Suggested Construction Start-up Schedule
~ DUG's Role in Your Community Garden or Park
~ Role of the Garden Leader(s)
~ Suggested Month-by-Month Garden Schedule
~ Garden Volunteer Committees
Prepared by Public Health Law and Policy; contains information on land use and planning policies to support community and urban gardening from across the country. Topics covered include: general promotion of community gardens; specific promotion of community gardens; land acquisition; land tenure; management; quotas/location; and equitable access
Community Physical Activity
In partnership with the Berkeley Media Studies Group , the Prevention Institute proudly announces the launch of a new interactive website dedicated to helping create safe places for children in all communities to play and be active. By showcasing successes as well as the problem, Jointuse.org provides the tools and resources advocates need to launch successful joint use agreements, allowing for shared use of public spaces like schools with community members once schools are closed.
Prepared by the California Center for Physical Activity, this 46-page guide is designed to provide local coordinators with the steps needed to create successful walking groups in communities. It provides basic information and resources that can be adapted to any community. You can use this guide to:
~ Organize walking groups
~ Motivate and train groups and organizations to create walking groups
~ Advocate for safe and accessible walking routes in your community
This program is led by four institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; and the National Cancer Institute. We Can! is unique in that it targets parents of youth ages 8-13 and caregivers and communities to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and reduce screen time among kids to maintain a healthy weight. There are extensive resources available in English and Spanish for parents (parent handbooks and tipsheets), community leaders (community toolkit and evidence based programs for parent and youth programming), and health care providers (tip sheets for physicians on how to talk to parents and kids about maintaining a healthy weight).
Recreation Programs
Transportation
Created by researchers and experts in the fields, the Transportation & Health Toolkit 101 is a collection of documents that illuminates how health and transportation intersect and demonstrates how effective transportation policies can improve the health of communities and their residents.
The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams. Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone. Instituting a "complete streets" policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind—including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
The HEAL Convergence has prepared a toolkit which presents an overview of transportation policy and planning, the connections between transportation and health, as well as policy opportunities to create healthy transportation options—focused mainly at federal policy. Much of this content was originally developed for the November 2008 CDC meeting, Linking Transportation Policy and Public Health [Conference Proceedings ]. Presentations and papers from some of the leading experts working at the intersection of health and transportation, many of whom are authors of the paper series commissioned by the HEAL Convergence, which will continue to add to this toolkit as time goes on.
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