PLACE Program
3530 Wilshire Blvd, 8th Floor,
Los Angeles, CA
90010
(213) 351-7825
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Organizations and Websites to Know |
NATIONAL RESOURCES
Active Living Research
Active Living Research is a program of the
Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation that produces evidence-based research on the
benefits of active school environments as well as walkable,
bikeable communities, particularly for preventing childhood
obesity. The Active Living Research website provides
credible research, toolkits, webinars, and access to a
network of experts in the field.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s
Healthy Community Design Initiative
This initiative from the CDC builds on existing evidence
about how planning and public health affect one another by
utilizing health impact assessment and describing community
design best practices. The Healthy Community Design
Initiative is home to resources that demonstrate the link
between community design and public health in terms of
physical activity, injury rates, healthy food access, social
relationships, and other important public health issues.
Active Living by Design
http://activelivingbydesign.org
Active Living by Design provides expertise to organizations
that wish to increase routine physical activity and healthy
eating through changes in community design. ALD currently
provide funding and technical assistance to 25 diverse
community partnerships across the United States with these
goals. The website contains a comprehensive selection of
toolkits, promising practices, white papers, and reports.
PolicyLink
PolicyLink is a national research and action institute
advancing economic and social equity. One report by
PolicyLink and the California Endowment, “Why
Place Matters: Building the Movement for Healthy
Communities” examines the relationship between
socioeconomic and environmental conditions and the health of
residents. This is just one of many reports that relate to
social equity that is available for free download from the
PolicyLink website.
Prevention Institute
The Prevention Institute website includes tools to support the creation, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive prevention initiatives and effective coalitions. It also contains tools to further health equity. Check out their helpful tools
here.
ChangeLab Solutions
ChangeLab Solutions works to improve the health of
communities by offering resources to policymakers and
advocates, including toolkits, technical assistance, and
reports on best practices. In particular, ChangeLab
Solutions
American Public Health Association
(APHA)
The APHA’s work spans a wide array of topic areas that
relate to public policy: from social cohesion to community
resilience to disasters to equitable access to safe, active
transportation options. APHA offers fact sheets,
communications toolkits, case studies, reports and links to
useful websites about these issue areas (and more). The APHA
has created a
Transportation Toolkit with all of these resources
specifically created for the intersection of transportation
and health. It also offers an e-newsletter with updates
about member organizations’ work in health and
transportation.
American Planning Association
(APA)
The American Planning Association is the national
professional organization for planners. The planning field
is involved in a wide array of activities that affect the
built and social environments, including creating plans and
policies that impact the nature of neighborhoods, housing,
and transportation.
Safe Routes to School National
Partnership
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a network
of “organizations, government agencies and professional
groups working to set goals, share best practices, leverage
infrastructure and program funding and advance policy change
to help agencies that implement Safe Routes to School
programs.” Safe Routes to School programs are implemented
all across the country to promote walking and biking among
school-age children, usually with funding from state or
national government.
LOS ANGELES RESOURCES
Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
(LACBC)
The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition works to create a
safer bicycling environment in the County through direct
advocacy with policymakers, offering safety classes for
bicyclists, and training volunteers to conduct
bicycle and pedestrian counts. LACBC also holds fun
community-building events, like ‘Sunday Funday’ rides and
its annual Los
Angeles River Ride.
Los Angeles Walks
Los Angeles Walks is “a pedestrian advocacy group that makes
walking safe, accessible and fun for all Angelenos.” Its
work includes raising awareness of walking as an essential,
enjoyable form of transportation, as well as advocating for
pedestrian infrastructure.
CicLAvia
CicLAvia is Los Angeles’ open streets event; every few
months, it opens streets for walking, biking, playing,
relaxing, and enjoying LA streets in new ways. Its rotating
location means that new parts of Los Angeles are opened up
for new activities.
Blogs and Other Resources
Streetsblog Los Angeles
Streetsblog LA reports daily on the issues that affect
bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders in the Los
Angeles County region.
Planetizen
Planetizen is a public-interest information exchange for the
urban planning, design, and development community.
Planetizen publishes the latest news, opinion, jobs, and
other features for the urban planning, design, and
development community. It also hosts online courses that
will interest novice planners, as well as several that may
be used for certification maintenance credits for certified
professionals.
The Dirt
The blog of the American Society of Landscape Architects
The Dirt features original articles written by landscape
architects and other professionals involved in shaping the
built and natural environments. Features include book
reviews, news, and policy developments in the field of
landscape architecture and planning.
NPR Cities
This series from National Public Radio explores the
particular challenges that cities and metropolitan areas
face today. NPR Cities includes news articles, book reviews,
and includes new websites and innovative tools for city
lovers.
Designing Healthy Communities -
PBS
This four-part series from PBS features UCLA’s Dr. Richard
Jackson and offers an in-depth look at the many ways that
the built environment affects people’s chances to be
healthy, as well as the ways that communities are meeting
the challenge of creating healthier places.
NYTimes Every City, Every Block
Census Explorer
This New York Times interactive feature allows users to map
the data in the most recent US Census in order to visualize
the demographic makeup of the nation.
United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Food Environment Atlas
- (maps access to healthy food)
This atlas from the UDSA allows users to view, download,
and print maps of the nation, by county, that illustrate
a range of topics that relate to communities’ food
environments. The atlas includes data about food
choices, such as availability and cost of healthy foods;
community indicators of health and well-being, such as
obesity and diabetes rates; and community
characteristics, such as rates of children or older
adults who are food insecure in each county
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