Posts Tagged ‘community design’

AZ Cities’ General Plan Schedules

May 2nd, 2013

A city’s General Plan is one tool for communities to define how they want their city or town to grow and improve population health.  Currently, Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, and Scottsdale are updating their General Plans, and each city has a variety of resources that give community members the opportunity to share their opinions and get involved with making their community healthier.  And remember there are excellent tools out there to help folks think through community design. 

Mesa has a website called This is My Mesa that gives their folks an opportunity to share their vision of a healthy community.  Check out the “News” and “Get Involved” tabs to look for upcoming events and ways to participate. Mesa has gone one step further and created  Idea Site. Through September you can share your ideas about what you want in your Mesa…  and voice your thoughts about how health can tie into the city’s General Plan. 

Tempe has an online forum where community members can share their 30-year vision for Tempe and can help craft a plan that makes Tempe a healthier community.  Information about upcoming meetings and the logistics of Tempe’s 2040 General Plan can be found on the City of Tempe website under the Community Development page. Keep your eyes open… there will be a process for public comment and involvement. The Council is scheduled to adopt the plan in late 2013 & Tempe residents are scheduled to vote on the General Plan in May 2014. 

Scottsdale has a website called Scottsdale General Plan, Your Plan, Your Future where community members can stay informed about Scottsdale’s 2014 General Plan. During late January and early February, a group of Scottsdale citizens came together to develop a draft vision statement for the 2014 General Plan…  which you can read and comment on here.  Community engagement will continue throughout 2013, with the General Plan public hearing and adoption process in late 2013 and early 2014. Scottsdale residents will vote on their Plan in August of 2014. 

Phoenix is in the middle of developing their General Plan- and 2013 is the year of heavy lifting.  They have a website called My Plan PHX which serves as their General Plan info hub.  Their “How it Works” site is a good place to start.  A good next step is to go to the Conserve Create ConnectPHX site and weigh in on the development and recreational ideas proposed by others- or post your own ideas.  

The General Plan outlines the plans for your city’s future. What better way is there to create the healthy environment you want to live and grow in over the next 10, 20, or 30 years? 

 

No comments »

Posted in General

Tags:

City Planning & Population Health

April 22nd, 2013

Last week I wrote about how improving the health of Arizonans is critical to improving the quality of life and reducing health care costs…  and that effective strategies are ones that incorporate the principles of population health.   A city’s General Plan can be a large public health lever to improve outcomes because it’s the long-range planning guide for the city…  addressing energy, housing, neighborhoods, public facilities, natural resources, transportation and land use.  Ordinary community members can have an influence by getting involved in their city’s General Plan.  But… where can folks start to get involved?  I’ll use Phoenix as this week’s example.

The City of Phoenix is in the middle of developing their General Plan- and 2013 is the year of heavy lifting.  Phoenix has a website called My Plan PHX as their General Plan info hub… and the “How it Works” link site is a good place to start.  A good next step is to go to the Conserve Create ConnectPHX site and weigh in on the development and recreational ideas proposed by others- or post your own ideas.   There are numerous topics related to population health already posted.  There are 256 days remaining to comment on the PHX Plan…  so get going. 

Next week I’ll post info about the schedules and logistics for the General Plans in other AZ cities.

No comments »

Posted in General, Prevention

Tags:

AZ Healthy Community Design Tools

April 15th, 2013

Improving the health of Arizonans is critical to improving the quality of life as well as reducing health care costs. The most effective strategies are ones that incorporate the principles of population health… which includes health outcomes as well as the determinants that influence those outcomes including the public policy that influences the social and environmental determinants. A city’s General Plan can be a large public health lever to improve those outcomes. 

Designing healthier communities requires a new way of thinking. For example, the way a city zones can affect how easy it is to get physical activity.  The tough part is connecting all of the right people to sit in on the conversation together. The zoning people might not talk to the health people, who may not talk to the transportation folks. But where can community residents start? One place to start is with a recently developed Toolkit put together by ADHS and other members of the Healthy Community Design Collaborative. 

This toolkit is really designed to help cities, towns and counties strategically think about how to enhance health through changing the built environment, like through adding sidewalks or bike lanes. It’s basically a guide for local residents who want to participate in their community planning process. The Toolkit provides a general overview of the process, explains the purpose of city General Plans, and gives guidance regarding who to talk to in local government- and presents ways to get involved. There’s also a checklist for what policy topics should be addressed in a plan and even some examples of policies for residents to consider for incorporation into their city’s General Plan. It also provides coaching for community residents to build relationships that facilitate implementing policy language. 

Our team recently created the azhealthcommunities.org website, which is another tool that provides information on the influence of community design, accessibility and transportation on health. You can even find some recent examples of how communities in Arizona are working to create healthier environments and learn to create a Health Impact Assessment, which can be used to help city projects improve population health. These are just some examples of how we can work to promote healthy and safe community environments – one of our priority areas of our Strategic Map.

No comments »

Posted in Prevention

Tags:

What’s Population Health?

April 9th, 2013

No doubt you’ve heard the term “population health” bandied about these days…  especially as the nation wrestles with finding ways to keep people healthier while decreasing health care costs.  But what exactly is population health? 

At its core, population health examines groups of people, their health outcomes, and the elements that influence those outcomes.  Examples of things that influence health outcomes include public health interventions, the social environment (income, education, employment, family and social support, culture), the physical environment (access to healthy food, community design, etc.), genetics, behavior, and access to preventative health care.  In other words, population health combines a population’s health outcomes with the things that influence those outcomes including the public policy that drives social and environmental determinants.

You might ask…  isn’t population health really just another word for public health?  They’re related… but some of the major determinants that influence health are related to larger public policy issues like education, income, employment, family and social support, community design, access to healthy food and access to preventative and acute health care.

That brings me to why it’s so important for us as public health officials to work with communities to influence policy decisions across the spectrum of social determinants.  For example…  at first it might not look like a city’s General Plan or city policies have much to do with population health.  A closer view shows that it has a ton to do with population health.

Whether a city makes a transportation project friendly to pedestrians & bicyclists has a direct impact on whether that city has an environment that invites people to incorporate regular exercise into their day.  How a city zones and issues licenses for weekend farmers markets can make a huge difference in whether they happen or not. There are thousands of examples…  but you get the idea…  social and environmental determinants are a huge public and population health lever.

Of course…  the public health system can’t do this alone.  It takes a village.  That’s why organizations like the Livable Communities Coalition and the Sonoran Institute among others are so important as they work to help Arizona communities to become places that improve those social and environmental determinants of health that make such a big impact on public health outcomes.  Next week, I’ll write about a recently developed (AZ specific) Toolkit put together by the Healthy Community Design Collaborative to help folks mobilize to create healthier communities.

1 comment »

Posted in General

Tags:

Implementing Our Strategic Plan- Promote Physical Activity & Nutrition

April 23rd, 2012

Our Public Health Prevention folks launched an exciting new initiative to improve health outcomes for Arizonans this month called the Arizona Population Health Policy Initiative.  This new partnership (with Arizona’s local county health departments) is focused on achieving targeted improvements in health outcomes for Arizonans by advancing evidence-based strategies which address community design, school health, worksite wellness, clinical care, and accessibility to nutritious food.  

The Initiative is similar to CDC’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work and Community Transformation Grants- and the program is funded with federal Title V and state tobacco tax & lottery prevention funds.  The idea came out of our strategic planning process, with the goal of working on several of our strategic planning elements and Winnable Battles by increasing the capacity of our county partners.  

We’re excited to partner with Arizona’s county health and community partners as we move forward with this Winnable Battle from the ADHS Strategic Plan.  For more info on the Initiative you can visit the Chronic Disease blog at http://chronicdiseaseaz.wordpress.com. 

 

No comments »

Posted in Prevention

Tags: