Partners Work to Promote Shared Use of Active Spaces in North Carolina

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Even when shared use agreements already exist, school districts can often be hesitant to actually enforce such policies. Because this seemed to be the case in North Carolina, the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) and North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) worked together to learn more about shared use practices in the state.

They soon learned that although 76 percent of schools in the state seemed to have policies that allowed for the shared use of their facilities during after-school hours, that only a fraction of these schools actually had written agreements.

According to a case study written by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the NCDPH and NCDPI also found that some of the schools’ written policies were weak and that there was a general lack of understanding over how shared use agreements worked.

In order to address this confusion, the NCDPH and NCDPI worked together to develop a guide to joint-use (shared use) agreements. Funding for the project came from the National Association of State Boards of Education and North Carolina Health Schools (a joint project of the NCDPH and the NCDPI).

Once the guide was available the NCDPH and the NCDPI worked together to distribute it to school health advisory committees (SHACs) and school administrators. Webinars and conferences were also hosted in order to inform the community of ways to institute shared use agreements.

For more information read the full case study here. For examples of best practices in promoting shared use agreements in North Carolina, read the Promoting Physical Activity Through Joint Use Agreements handbook.