Members of the Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin (GAVA) grassroots initiative are making a difference for families living in Austin's Dove Springs community---a predominantly Latino area of southeast Austin with historically high childhood obesity rates. In just two years, the group has managed to bring healthy changes to local parks, corner stores, grocery stores and schools. Some of the group's accomplishments include getting: A New multi-age playscape;
Park improvements;
An open gym pilot program;
A zumba program; and
Healthier options at corner stores Read more about this change here. See a presentation with information from one of GAVA's public health committee meeting ...
Residents living in Boyle Heights, one of Los Angeles' predominantly Latino districts, took charge of their health by hosting one of the area's very first 5K runs in conjunction with a community health fair. According to a Streetsblog LA blog, the event which took place on Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 8:00-9:45 am, was organized under the leadership of Juan Romero, owner of a local coffee shop called Primera Taza. Romero wanted for local residents to have an event of their own that celebrated their culture, family and health, while raising funds for organizations in need. After years, of discussing the idea for a 5K, in March 2014 Romero decided to take the initiative of organizing the event himself. He partnered with the White Memorial Hospital the Variety Boys and Girls ...
After learning that kids in Rosedale were at a high risk for childhood obesity, the Rosedale Development Association (RDA) decided it was time to do something about it. They learned that the community wanted more trails so they hired an expert who developed plans for a hike & bike nature trail to connect the community to parks and other key spots. With support from various groups and the local government, the RDA built over 2.3 miles of nature trail, all at a minimal expense. Families and children in the community are already benefitting from the trail and the group continues expanding the Rozarks trail network.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: The Rosedale Development Association (RDA), a Kansas City, Kan., non-profit community development corporation, has worked since the 1940s to solve ...
In Los Angeles, local residents are using art to express what they'd like their community and streets to look like through L.A. Vision Zero Workshops. According to a blog form Streetsblog Los Angeles, they have partnered with non-profit groups like Los Angeles Walks, Place It!, LongBeachize, and Santa Monica Next, to engage the community in a creative process which allows residents of any age, ethnicity, or experience level, to participate in planning and designing healthy communities. What makes their approach to community engagement different? They provide the community with legos, blocks, trinkets, and pretty much anything you can find at an arts and crafts store, and allow them to get visually creative with what safe streets should look like. During L.A. Vision ...
SPARK Parks, a Houston based non-profit group that works to turn school playgrounds into community parks, will soon learn more about the use of 150 parks it's worked to establish, throughout Harris County. With support from a Houston Endowment grant, experts from The Trust For Public Land (TPL) will evaluate SPARK park usage starting in Summer 2014 and running through Fall 2014. By conducting a local evaluation to better understand how parks are being used, the non-profit will have a better idea of what factors make SPARK parks successful. TPL evaluators will tract park usage during non-school hours and conduct interviews among park users. Studies like this are important for providing evidence to support the need for shared use of public space in underserved, Latino ...
How do you a make a city vibrant and healthy? One good place to start is by investing in its parks like New York City's mayor Bill DeBlasio has committed to doing. On October 7, 2014 the mayor announced a $173 million dollar initiative to re-create 35 parks (65.5 acres of parkland) in communities of high need. According to an NYC press release, the first phase of the Community Parks Initiative (CPI) will impact at least 220,000 New Yorkers, across 55 different neighborhoods, who live within a 10 minute walking distance of the targeted parks. “Through targeted investments and programming, we will engage New Yorkers by re-creating parks in communities that need open space improvements the most, Mayor de Blasio said in the press release. "This is a framework that will ...
Kids and families now have safer streets thanks to a community-led effort which resulted in the addition of two new crosswalks and stop signs for one Concord, CA neighborhood. According to a First Five Contra Costa blog, in 2012, at least 12 members from their Central County Regional Group banned together to conduct a walk audit of local streets and intersections. What community members discovered was that two important intersections, often crossed by families and children, were not walkable under current conditions. After the walk audit, the team decided to go a step further by developing recommendations for their city council. In May 2013, the regional group members and staff from Health Services presented their need before city council and within a week stop signs ...
A group of young skateboarders from San Diego, CA, recently met up with park planners to give them an idea of what they would like to see in their new skate park. With skateboarding highly popular among teens and not enough safe places to skate, members of the Mid-City CAN Youth Council took it upon themselves to find a way to get a skate park for the community. "After three and a half years working on this campaign I'm really proud of our efforts to bring a skate park to the community," Angeli Hernandez, a Mid-City CAN Youth Council Member said, in a Mid-City blog. "I'm even prouder that the whole community can benefit from this." As a result of the Youth Council's efforts and support from organizations like the Mid-City Community Advocacy Network, Mid-City Skatepark ...
Kids at Boone elementary in San Antonio, TX celebrated the grand opening of a new community SPARK park on Friday October 3, 2014. What are SPARK parks? These are school playgrounds that are available to the public during after school hours. Parks such as these, are a great asset to the Latino community and can be especially useful for promoting physical activity in neighborhoods that lack green space or safe places to play. The SPARK park at Boone marks the third SPARK park at the Northside Independent School District (NISD). "The reaction that we've gotten is so positive from parents, from grandparents, from folks who just live around the school and have been able to use the facility," NISD Superintendent Brian Woods said in a TWC news story. Learn more about SPARK ...
