Public Health

$33 Million Investment is Foundation’s Largest Investment in Community-Based Solutions to Prevent Childhood Obesity

People value the time they spend in city parks, whether walking a dog, playing basketball, or having a picnic. Parks can provide measurable health benefits, from providing direct contact with nature and a cleaner environment, to opportunities for physical activity and social interaction.

This database includes smaple school district policies and information on physical activity.

This interactive CD-ROM is a training and decision making support tool designed to help CDC staff and public health professionals plan communication programs within a health context.

A web-based resource to assist local government officials in their efforts to protect the environment and public health. A collection of tools are designed to help users perform operations and calculations necessary to fulfill environmental reporting requirements or guide the development of a helpful environmental program.

MAPP is a community-wide strategic planning tool for improving community health. It helps communities prioritize public health issues and identify resources for addressing them.

The authors present a conceptual framework that can be used to describe the extent to which environments promote health. They suggest that we consider which particular element of the environment has the greatest impact on an occupant's well being, the dimension of health impacted, and the dimensions within the environment that should be considered. Six guidelines for assessing the health promotive capacity are described.

Conventional transportation planning tends to overlook negative health impacts from increased motor vehicle travel and potential health benefits from shifts to alternative modes. The author explores how transportation decision-making can better support public health objectives, including reduced crashes and pollution emissions, and more physical activity.

Actions undertaken by states, regions and localities to achieve smart growth are not always easy to learn about, nor are examples immediately available. This database highlights numerous policies and programs that states and localities nationwide have implemented to further smart growth. The policies in this database represent a variety of approaches ranging from formal legislative or regulatory efforts to informal approaches, plans, and programs.