BECAUSE HEALTH HAPPENS
IN THE PLACES WHERE
WE LIVE, LEARN, WORK AND PLAY
The positive ramifications of smart growth are vast. A healthy community is one of the greatest benefits this approach can offer. For this reason, health professionals and practitioners across the U.S. continue to join forces with the stewards of the built, natural and social environments to improve the health of our nation.
Planners, designers, architects, engineers, developers, health foundations, elected officials, community-based organizations and many others are working together on issues related to the intersection of public health and community development like never before.
Prominent collaborations such as
Plan4Health-a partnership between the
American Planning Association and the
American Public Health Association-are empowering coalitions to help improve health outcomes.
The
Urban Land Institute's Building Healthy Places Initiative exemplifies how the private sector is responding to the need to incorporate health considerations into real estate development processes.
Visionaries in organizations such as the
Million Healthier Lives and the
Building Healthy Places Network are fostering a culture of health through the development of opportunities for crossectoral collaborations of traditional and non-traditional partners.
In many states, cities and counties are incorporating the
Health in All Policies (HiAP) model into their daily work and by developing health and wellness chapters into their comprehensive land use planning policies.
These examples did not happen by accident. For more than three decades, planning and health professionals have been nurturing what we know today as the
healthy communities movement. Within the past five years, however, these collaborations, partnerships and initiatives have sprouted throughout the nation and are fostering an emerging narrative that envisions a more just, equitable and healthier society.