How Local Initiatives Make Big Health Changes
We don't have to wait for top-down solutions...
Check out these inspiring stories on how local movements impact health!
Cities Designed for Health and Safety
One story that demonstrates the impact of this initiative in local communities is the development of a Green and Complete Streets Ordinance in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The community members and partners from the Pawtucket and Central Falls HEZ identified the importance of ensuring that streets that were accessible for pedestrians, motorists, and bicyclists and safe for users of all ages and abilities as a priority. They partnered with the city planning office to advocate for and develop a Green and Complete Streets Ordinance, the first of its kind in the Northeast. Through this work, the members and organizations of the HEZ helped shape transformational change that will have lasting implications for the health and safety of residents.
Community Gardens Impact Health
The study’s authors analyzed data from over 1,000 community gardens in the United States and found that they are associated with increased physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and social cohesion. The authors also found that community gardens are more likely to be located in areas with higher levels of poverty and crime. This suggests that community gardens may provide a way to improve health and social outcomes in disadvantaged communities.
Increasing Movement for Kids in Schools
For Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District (ISD) in Fort Worth, Texas, partnering with the LiiNK Project has helped district leaders systematically set and reinforce the expectation that daily unstructured play is a universal social-emotional support for all elementary school students.
Prior to implementing LiiNK, the district had taken small steps to increase recess for students by adding five minutes to the school day overall and putting a district-wide policy in place increasing elementary-level recess to 30 minutes per day. After learning about the LiiNK Project, administrators realized the district could do even more to support students’ social-emotional health.
Local School District Improves Food
There’s enough support and talented people around Madison for local food systems and healthy food that we really shouldn’t have a school meal program that so many people are opting out of,” she said.
Dental Health
Impressive public health achievements have started locally. Take the fluoridation of drinking water, for example, which the CDC named as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the twentieth century. Beginning with Grand Rapids, Michigan, state and local health departments across the US implemented community water fluoridation, reducing dental cavities among children by 50–70 percent and saving US communities an estimated $39 billion in dental care expenditures over 10 years.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/public-health-local
Cities Banning Herbicides on Playgrounds
LODI, Calif. — California can now add Lodi to its growing list of cities that are banning or limiting the use of Roundup. That’s an herbicide – or weed killer – containing a chemical called glyphosate, which is potentially toxic to humans.
Effective immediately, Lodi is no longer using Roundup within 25 feet of the city’s 17 playgrounds.
Improving Hospitals by Investing in Community Health
Hospitals that invest in community health equity — reducing and ultimately eliminating disparities in health and the determinants that adversely affect excluded or marginalized groups — can strengthen their financial performance, organizational culture, and reputation.
https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.22.0329
There are thousands of examples around the country of ways communities who prioritize health improve economically. Local solutions are particular to the needs of their communities, and they are nimble and able to be implemented quickly. We don’t have to wait for top-down solutions!