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 ...
Hollin Meadows Elementary School, part of the 23% Latino Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, has dedicated leaders and parents who value student health. A few years ago, they started a vegetable garden. Since then, thanks to the leadership of parent Shawn Akard, the school has: developed more gardens; brought in an “outdoor education coordinator” to oversee the gardens and programming; and helped students learn to grow and value new healthy produce.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: Shawn Akard, a PTA member and mother of a student at Hollin Meadows Elementary School in Alxandria, Va., appreciated the healthy changes going on in her district, Fairfax County Public Schools. She wanted to get involved. Learn: Around 2006, she talked with other parents to get ideas on how to get kids ...
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 ...
Communities with successful farmers' markets can speak to how markets inspire healthier eating and promote a new-found appreciation for local farming. With so many farmers' markets across the country, it can be difficult to say exactly how a farmers' market works and what a successful one entails. A non-profit group is pulling together data on markets around the U.S., and plans to use this data to help markets begin, grow, learn, and better serve their community.
The Farmers Market Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to strengthening farmers markets across the United States so that they can serve as community assets while providing real income opportunities for farmers. Farmers Market Metrics will be a set of tools and resources that will allow market managers to easily and ...
