ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH

Healthy Places Coalition

Prevention Institute is a founding member and coordinator of the Healthy Places Coalition. The Healthy Places Coalition was formed in 2007 to advance public health involvement in land use and transportation planning to ensure that all neighborhoods in California promote the opportunity to live a healthy life.  We accomplish this by:

The Coalition consists of practitioners from planning, public health, parks and recreation, and other related fields, community advocates, academics, and concerned individuals from around the state committed to social and health equity. Participants include: Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, California Department of Health Services, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, California Park and Recreation Society, Center for Civic Partnerships, Human Impact Partners, LA County Physical Activity Program, PolicyLink, Prevention Institute, Public Health Law and Policy Planning for Healthy Places, Samuels & Associates, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Shasta County Public Health Department, and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.

Strategic Alliance

Funded by: The California Wellness Foundation and The California Endowment
Prevention Institute is a founding member and coordinator of the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments. The Alliance is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to promoting environmental and policy changes to support healthy eating and regular activity. Many aspects of the community environment, such as safe streets, school food, grocery store location, product marketing, and availability of parks, can greatly influence eating and activity behaviors. Serving as an independent voice to influence institutions, government, and industry, the Alliance seeks to improve nutrition and physical activity norms through environmental changes, with the ultimate goal of benefiting the health and wellness of all California residents. Founding members of the Strategic Alliance include: California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit), California Center for Public Health Advocacy, California Food Policy Advocates, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, California Project LEAN, California WIC Association, Child Care Food Program Roundtable, Latino Health Access, Prevention Institute, and Samuels & Associates.

THRIVE: Tool for Health and Resilience In Vulnerable Environments

Funded by: The California Endowment, The Office of Minority Health, and The Community Technology Foundation of California
With support from The California Endowment and the Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Prevention Institute developed THRIVE, a community health approach to health disparities. THRIVE was piloted nationally, and is now available as an interactive web-based tool designed to help people understand and prioritize the factors within their own communities that can help improve health and safety. The tool identifies key factors and allows a user to rate how important that factor might be in the community. It also provides information about how each factor is related to health outcomes and some direction about what to do to address the factor and where to go for more information. The translation of THRIVE into a web-based tool was funded by the Community Technology Foundation of California (CTFC). The CTFC helps underserved communities secure social justice, access, and equity through the application of information and communications technologies. View the THRIVE web tool or read the executive summary of the THRIVE final report.

Building Bridges: Linking Public Health and the Sustainable Agriculture Movement

Funded by: Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation and the Columbia Foundation
The Building Bridges project was developed to create opportunities for strengthening the momentum for a just, sustainable, health-promoting food system by joining the forces of public health and the sustainable agriculture movement. Some potentially overlapping goals include reducing exposure to toxic chemicals in food and its production, increasing production and access to affordable, fresh, high quality farm products, ensuring a clean water supply, and altering the elements of the food system which favor the production and distribution of highly-processed, high-fat and high-sugar food products.

• Cultivating Common Ground: Linking Health and Sustainable Agriculture (PDF)
  Findings and recommendations to build a collaborative movement for a just, sustainable, health-promoting food system.

Healthy Parks, Healthy Communities
Funded by: Trust for Public Land (TPL)

Prevention Institute and TPL conducted six trainings in Los Angeles County during 2005-2006 to address park inequities in the context of health disparities. The trainings focused on increasing physical activity opportunities in low income communities of color in Los Angeles County through the creation and enhancement of parks, playgrounds and community gardens.