Healthy Communities by Design

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

The Healthy Communities by Design Program aims to design healthier communities by integrating health and equity considerations into land use and transportation decisions. The central strategy is to convene urban planners, public health officials, and community advocates to identify common interests and opportunities for aligning policy objectives, and to develop a coordinated communication strategy that helps advance common objectives. Public health concerns, particularly around prevention of chronic disease, are increasingly relevant to land use and transportation planners as knowledge of the impact of the environment on health increases. In an era of reduced government budgets, strategies that on corporate health outcomes into decisions for how we design our cities are more likely to win the support of elected officials and agency leaders. In close collaboration with community partners, the healthy Communities by Design program has helped develop a series of policy recommendations and is developing a Health Equity Assessment Tool to ensure that decision-makers consider how land use and transportation projects and policies affect opportunities for all county residents to by physically active.