Discussion questions for classrooms
- What are the three most important points in the chapter about how built environment and health are connected?
- How does the look and feel of your own neighborhood shape your behavior? (Probes: Do you feel comfortable walking? Why or why not? Are there beautiful things to look at? What are they; what could be added/changed? How easy is it for you to get where you need to go?)
- What makes a “healthy” community? If you designed a community from the ground up, what elements would you include?
- Why do some communities have parks, grocery stores, and bike lanes while others don’t? Who decides? Who needs to be “at the table” to change conditions?
- Whose voices are most commonly heard in decision-making about community environments? What can we do to engage a broader base? (Probe: What do community residents need to meaningfully engage in decision-making?)
- How do the discriminatory housing lending policies of the mid-20th century continue to shape our communities today?
- “Healthy community” initiatives designed to improve community environments—new bike lanes, parks, transit developments—can catalyze gentrification and displacement, compromising the health of people that have perpetually been denied resources. What is needed to ensure that investments benefit residents and small businesses in historically dis-invested communities?
Resources from Prevention Institute
HEALU stands for Healthy Equitable Active Land Use. This Prevention Institute presentation illustrates Building Healthy, Vibrant Communities: Exploring Strategies to Address Displacement
In this five-minute video, produced by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Larry describes the CCHM model, introducing it to health leaders in that state as they develop a demonstration project to put the model into practice.
Addressing the Intersection: Preventing Violence and Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living explores the relationship between violence and healthy eating and activity. The paper can support work in preventing chronic disease in communities heavily impacted by violence.
This Prevention Institute publication examines how Community health centers and other health facilities can actualize this approach, producing a coordinated set of practices we’re calling a Community Centered Health Home.
A Prevention Institute publication exploring the decisions we make about the built environment – land use, zoning, community design – impact access to healthy food, safe public spaces and resident experiences of violence.
Healthy food and activity leaders identify violence and fear of violence as roadblocks to the success of chronic disease prevention strategies. When people don’t feel safe in their communities, they are less likely to use local parks and public transportation services.
A policy brief from Prevention Institute identifies 4 key strategies for creating healthy, equitable land use across Los Angeles.
The latest HEALU report on land use decisions, and how intentional, inclusive neighborhood design can enhance community safety is featured in Investing in Place
*** For up-to-date news on built environment, see Prevention Institute’s Weekly Media Digest posts in the Prevention Institute Blog ***
Richard Jackon, author of 3 books on the built environment & public health, and host of the PBS series Designing Healthy Communities, discusses the federal silos of housing, transportation, food policy, health, and indoor air quality.
Majora Carter embraces the idea of “self-gentrification” in her native South Bronx. She’s hired local gamers to test software for major tech outfits and opened the first boutique coffee shop in Hunts Point, a neighborhood that she swore she would leave forever.
APA’s Planning and Community Health Center advances practices that improve human environments to promote public health through active living, healthy eating, and health in all planning policies. Through applied research, partnerships, and education, this center supports the integration of health into planning practice at all levels.
APHA believes everyone deserves healthy communities where everyone has a safe and healthy home, everyone has access to safe and healthy food and decision-makers consider health and equity when making transportation and land-use decision. APHA works with partners like America Walks, Safe Routes to School National Partnership and others to promote active transportation. They also partner with the American Planning Association on Plan4Health, which encourages sustainable, cross-sector coalitions working with communities to increase access to healthy food and opportunities for active living.
The Built Environment and Public Health Clearinghouse is a collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of the National Prevention Strategy and Healthy Community Design Program, National Network of Public Health Institutes, the American Planning Association’s Planning and Community Health Research Center, and the American Public Health Association. The group works to build bridges between public health and the community design/built environment fields through the development of resources and educational opportunities.
For the past 38 years, City Farmer has encouraged urban dwellers to pull up a patch of lawn and plant some vegetables, kitchen herbs and fruit. The website holds a collection of stories about such farming initiatives at City Farmer in Vancouver, Canada, and about urban farmers from around the world.
HOPE (Health for Oakland’s People and Environment) Collaborative is a community collaborative working towards policy and systems change to promote the health and well-being of families and youth in the most vulnerable communities of East and West Oakland. Their mission is to advance racial, economic, and health equity in Oakland via work in food systems, built environment, and community/youth engagement.
Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust creates small, accessible urban parks and gardens that help remedy the critical lack of green and recreational spaces in greater Los Angeles’ underserved neighborhoods, and ensures participation and collaboration among low-income residents throughout the process of envisioning, building and managing the parks and gardens we create.
Building Healthy Communities through Land Use Planning Awareness (LUPA) is a community capacity building project designed to empower communities across the eastern Coachella Valley. LUPA is designed to foster critical thinking, civic dialogue and civic engagement as avenues to influence decision making in land use planning for the advancement of better and greater health outcomes.
NCHE, Milken Institute School of Public Health at the GWU of Washington, D.C; and Prevention Institute of Oakland, CA will take stock of public health departments’ practices and policies related to equity, community engagement, and social determinants of health.
PolicyLink and the Center for Health Equity and Place seeks to create the economic, social, and physical characteristics needed for healthy communities in all neighborhoods, with a focus on the needs of low-income communities and communities of color. It is dedicated to achieving and institutionalizing health equity by supporting key stakeholders with technical assistance, policy advocacy tools, research and data analysis, and coalition-building consultation.
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a nonprofit organization that promotes healthy living, safe infrastructure, and physical activity, starting with bicycling and walking to school and beyond. They advance policy change; catalyze support with a network of more than 750 partner organizations, as well as schools, policy makers, and grassroots supporters.
SAJE is a 501c3 non-profit organization in South Los Angeles. Since 1996 SAJE has advocated for economic justice in their community focusing on tenant rights, healthy housing, and equitable development. SAJE has taken slumlords to court, established a land trust, and helped implement innovative popular education programs.
STREETSBLOG is a daily news source connecting people to information about sustainable transportation and livable communities.