The Healthy Places Coalition advances public health involvement
in land use and transportation planning to ensure that all neighborhoods in
California promote the opportunity to live a healthy life.
Opportunities for Action
Strategic Growth Council Meeting
Date: May 10, 2012, 1:00-5:00pm
Location: 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA
Natural Resources Building Auditorium
Meetings of the Strategic Growth are open to the public and include opportunities for public testimony. Keep an eye on the Strategic Growth Council webpage for an agenda and further details.
Save the Date: Enact Day 2012
Date: May 16, 2012
Location: St. John’s Lutheran Church, 1701 L St., Sacramento, CA
ENACT advocacy day, cosponsored by the Healthy Places Coalition, brings together advocates from across the state for a yearly, grassroots lobbying day held in Sacramento, CA. This event is an effort to educate policy makers about opportunities to improve California's nutrition and physical activity environments. Additional information will be forthcoming
RWJF Roadmaps to Health Community Grants
The Roadmaps to Health Community Grants program will fund up to 20 communities, up to $200,000 each, to support the implementation of policy and system changes to address social or economic factors that influence health outcomes in their community. Applicants must engage community members, collaborate with expert organizations, and secure 100 percent matching support. The deadline is May 2:read more and access the application here. An upcoming webinar on April 10 will be held to help applicants learn more about the grants.
HUD Choice Neighborhoods Grants
Grant funds are available Department of Housing and Urban Development from the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, which seeks to transform neighborhoods by linking housing improvements with services, schools, public assets, transportation, and access to jobs. $110 million in implementation grants is available and $5 million in planning grants are available to public housing authorities (PHAs), local governments, nonprofits, tribal entities and for-profit developers that apply jointly with a public entity. The application deadline is April 10. Read more and access the NOFA here.
Resources
New Primer on Regional Transportation Planning for Public Health
TransForm in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health has released a new guide on regional transportation plans (RTP) for the public health community. This primer will demystify RTPs, identify ways to incorporate health-promoting strategies into RTPs, and highlight short case studies of improving community health through RTPs. Download the full report here.
New Research on Local Health Department Leadership Strategies for Healthy Built Environments
A recent paper in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice by Dr. Heather Kuiper at the Global Health Access Program and others looks at how local public and environmental health leaders increase their departments' health-promoting impact on built environment design, and what pitfalls they should avoid. More information is available online.
APHA Fact Sheet on Public Transportation and Health
The American Public Health Association has produced a new fact sheet on the intersection between public transportation and public health highlights statistics and examples connecting equitable public transportation systems with environmental, social, and public health outcomes. The full report is available from APHA.
Biking and Walking in the 50 States
The Alliance for Biking and Walking has released a new report ranking all 50 states and the 51 largest U.S. cities on bicycling and walking levels, safety, funding, and other factors, and linking biking and walking to public safety, demographics, public health indicators, and economic factors. The 2012 Benchmarking Report is available from the Alliance as a free PDF.
To contribute to the Healthy Places Coalition Digest e-mail Sandra Viera.
