Surgeon generals rec for pa

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Liveable Communities - Making Our Neighborhoods
Healthier
Kim Irwin, Chair Indiana Lead Safe and Healthy
Homes Conference November 5, 2008
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Our mission

• To create an environment that promotes
  physical activity and protects the environment
  through education, advocacy, and action.

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Our focus

• To work on how the built environment
• (neighborhoods, communities,
• transportation systems,
• buildings, regions,
• parks, and open spaces)
• can promote more active lives.

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Why promote more active lifestyles?
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Are Indianas adults healthy?

• 8.1 of adults had diabetes.
• 8.4 had asthma.
• 25.3 did not participate in any physical
  activity in the past month.
• 35.0 were overweight.
• 27.8 were obese.
• Short answerno
• Source Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
  System, Adults (18 years of age), Indiana, 2006.

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Are Indianas youth healthy?

• 22.5 of adolescents had asthma.
• 56.3 were not physically active for at least 60
  minutes per day on five or more of the past seven
  daysSurgeon Generals recommendation
• 13.8 were overweight.
• Short answerno
• Source Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Adolescents
  (grades 9th 12th), Indiana, 2007.

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Other considerations

• Transportation
• Most people in Indianapolis drive alone to work
• 2.2 walk or bike
• 2.4 use public transit
• Environmental
• Non-attainment for air quality

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Change is needed.

• We cannot solve our problems with the same
  thinking we used when we created them.
• Albert Einstein

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Health by Designs approach. . .
... for improved public health, communities also
need to become engaged in discussions about
transportation environment.
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Our members

• Concerned Citizens
• Non-profit organizations
• Academia
• Private industries and businesses
• Environmental groups
• Planners, designers, architects, and builders
• Transportation
• Public and environmental health
• Recreation and safety personnel
• And you?

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Our priority goals

• Increase walking, biking, and other public
  transit options.
• Increase neighborhood, city, and regional
  connectivity.
• Encourage land use decision making that promotes
  public health.
• Reduce dependency on automobiles.

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Our priorities impact many issues

• Improve air and water quality
• Enhance public safety
• Increase choices for active living
• Promote community and social interaction
• Reduce traffic congestion and oil dependency
• Strengthen local economies
• Decrease accident and fatality rates
• Reduce crimeeyes on the street

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1. Increase walking, biking, and other public
transit options
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What makes a place walkable?

• Convenient destinations
• Compact, mixed land uses
• High connectivity, including shorter blocks and
  more intersections
• Good walking infrastructure (sidewalks, trails,
  parks, etc.)
• Pleasing aesthetics

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Whats more inviting?
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2. Increase neighborhood, city, and regional
connectivity
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3. Encourage land use decision making that
promotes public health
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4. Reduce dependency on automobiles
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Shared Roads
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What can you do?

• Join Health by Design
• Prioritize your own neighborhood issues
• Register to conduct advocacy
• Enlist others (neighbors, family, colleagues,
  city-county councilor members, etc)
• Write a letter to the editor on a current affair
• Do a walkability assessment in your neighborhood
  and share the results
• Commit to walk or bike more

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Start in your neighborhood!
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Contact information

• Health by Design401 W. Michigan
  StreetIndianapolis, IN 46202-3233
• 317.352.3844
• info_at_healthbydesignonline.org
• www.healthbydesignonline.org
• an Alliance for Health Promotion initiative