Community Development Approaches to Improving Public Health

As the rates of chronic diseases, like diabetes, asthma and obesity skyrocket, research is showing that the built environment – the way our cities and towns are developed – contributes to the epidemic rates of these diseases. It is unlikely that those who plannedand developed these places envisioned these situations. Public health, community development planning, and other fields influencing the built environment have operated in isolation for much of recent history, with the result being places that public health advocates have labelled, ‘designed for disease’. The sad irony of this is that planning and public health arose together, in response to the need to create health standards, zoning and building codes to combat the infectious diseases that were prevalent in the industrializing cities of late nineteenth and early twentieth century America. In recent years, the dramatic rise in chronic disease rates in cities and towns has begun to bring public health and planning back together to promote development pattern and policies facilitating physical activity and neighbourly interactions as antidotes. In this book, a number of such community development efforts are highlighted, bringing attention to the needto coordinate planning, community development and health policy. Thisbook was originally published as a specialissue of Community Development.

1. I can do it, you can do it: a community development approach to health promotion for individuals with disabilities M. Elizabeth Kemeny, Robert Arnold and Michael Marge 2. Community-wide obesity prevention: re-connecting public health, urban planning, and public policy in three Missouri communities Phillip Valko, Jennifer Allen, Cynthia Mense, Sarah Worthington, Janice Sommers, Ross Brownson and Mariah Dreisinger 3. Opportunity for Unity collaborative: building healthy communities by empowering young adults Melissa M. Pearrow 4. Home grown: the trials and triumphs of starting up a farmers' market in Waianae, Hawaii Christy Inda, Anuenue Washburn, Sheila Beckham, Bryan Talisayan and Desiree Hikuroa 5. Using health impact assessment in community development to improve air quality and public health Kim Gilhuly, Marnie Purciel, Lili Farhang, Jennifer Lucky, Emily Celia Harris, Jonathan Heller and Edmund Yet Wah Seto 6. Farmers' markets in low income communities: impact of community environment, food programs and public policy Candace Young, Allison Karpyn, Nicky Uy, Katy Wich and Jonathan Glyn 7. Ciclovìa in Chicago: a strategy for community development to improve public health Maryann Mason, Sarah B. Welch, Adam Becker, Daniel R. Block, Lucy Gomez, Adolfo Hernandez and Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar 8. Applying innovative approaches to address health disparities in native populations: an assessment of the Crow Men's Health Project Paul R. Lachapelle, Tim Dunnagan and James Real Bird 9. Nuestro futuro saludable: connecting public health research and community development in partnership to build a healthy environment Linda S. Martinez, Uchenna Ndulue and Flavia C. Peréa 10. Public health agenda setting in Louisiana: an applied index and implications for community development policy Lesley Taylor Grover and Eric Horent

Robert S. Ogilvie is Vice President for Strategic Engagement at ChangeLab Solutions.