Berry Elementary will benefit from having a Spark Park thanks to the efforts of Principal Deborah Silber and funds that come from the district's $805 million bond program. About 150 Houston Independent School District (HISD) schools already benefit from this program and other schools are currently in the process of developing plans to get a Spark Park at their school. Parks are mostly funded through federal grants; still schools and the school district are required to raise funds as well. The park at Berry elementary will feature art work that displays the neighborhood's Hispanic heritage. “We took the interest in the needs of the community and incorporated it into the park,” said Principal Silber. The park will be open to the community and during school hours the park will be ...
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) partnered with the City of Houston to help create a more bikeable community. BCBSTX donated $750,000 to expand the Houston B-cycle program. The generous donation from BCBSTX will help Houston expand to phase two of the Houston B-cycle program. Currently the bike share program only exists at downtown locations. Phase two of the program will expand the B-cycle program's presence into Midtown, Montrose, and the museum district. Plans for a phase three expansion into the Texas Medical Center and to local universities are in the works. ...
This radio report features Houston Sustainability Director Laura Spanjian and City Councilman Stephen Costello, two members of the city of Houston's Grocery Access Task Force. They speak about the challenges faced by families in food deserts, and how they hope to bring fresh produce into these communities. ...
Houston was once dubbed the fattest city in the nation, until former Mayor Lee Brown started the Get Lean program. Although, Houstonians initially lost weight through the Get Lean program,weight levels began to once again rise in the city. In response to this, Mayor Parker has launched the Healthy Houston ...
The food and beverage industry most aggressively targets low-income children from communities of color. Read this mother's story and about why she has decided to take action in the fight against "Big ...
MAP-21 will merge resources from the Transportation Enhancement fund and Safe Routes to Schools fund into one new pool of funds called the Transportation Alternative fund. States will then allocate 50% of these funds to local metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) and 50% will be available for the state to spend on transportation projects at their own discretion. With the enactment of this new policy pedestrian and bike ways projects will have to compete with highway and road construction ...
Projects in San Antonio, Texas and Chicago, Illinois, two cities largely populated by Latinos, were funded by Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grants, to prevent obesity in neighborhoods with a high proportion of low-income and minority residents. Read more about, How to Help Parks Help City Residents, in this blog post from the Robert Wood Johnson ...
This article describes the latest developments in Complete Streets Policies across the nation. Essentially, a Complete Streets policy determines how the residing department of transportation authority will design streets and how transportation funds will be spent. According to the Complete Streets Coalition, of all the 488 policies in place, the city of Indianapolis has produced an exemplary model of what a true Complete Streets policy should look like. Additionally, this article summarizes the 10 principals that the Complete Streets Coalition considers to be most important in any Complete Streets policy. ...
Young Latinos like Pedro from the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative were inspired to make a difference in their community while attending the National Food & Fitness Youth gathering held in Boston. Youth from across the country gathered to share their thoughts and ideas on how they could be successful at bringing healthy changes to their community. Youth shared ideas for how they could bring food justice to their community and how they could use on-line tools to amplify their voice. See this Storify recap to learn about some of the thought provoking activities and discussions which took place at this meeting. Learn more about youth engagement and the non-profit, CANFIT, that organized this effort. ...
