![\"Workbook](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/WorkbookCover-Header.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program<\/a> of the National Park Service and\u00a0the\u00a0Healthy Community Design Initiative<\/a> of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got together and produced a Parks, Trails and Health Workbook. \u00a0It is widely recognized that parks are critical to the health of communities and the people that live in them. \u00a0This workbook is designed to help park planners integrate these public health concepts into their designs.<\/p>\n Specifically, the workbook should help:<\/p>\n The workbook has five sections and supporting appendices:<\/p>\n This also includes the identification of demographic trends that can be useful in developing a facility that can handle future needs.<\/p>\n Finally, the data developed in this step will allow monitoring and evaluation that will reveal the ultimate effects of creating the facility.<\/p>\n A community workshop can be used to gather information from local residents. \u00a0This assessment should include things like geographic conditions, vegetative conditions and human interactions with the area. For example, who is using the trails that already exist, which trees are important to preserve, and how often does the area flood.<\/p>\n All of this information is used to create a park that meshes nicely with it’s environment and that best serves its users.<\/p>\n Beyond the physical attributes designed into a park, consideration should also be given to strategies that further contribute to health. \u00a0For example, exercise classes, a farmers market, geocaching opportunities, art in the park,\u00a0\u00a0and so on. \u00a0These strategies also depend\u00a0upon the park being designed to accommodate them.<\/p>\n Answers to these and other questions may not only lead to modifications in the park design, but also changes in surrounding systems and land uses so that the entire community functions better.<\/p>\n There are also case studies to demonstrate how the concepts presented in the workbook have played out in communities across the country.<\/p>\n All in all, \u00a0the workbook offers a great template for community planning with heavy public involvement as it relates to parks and community recreation developments.<\/p>\n The workbook is freely available and you can download it here<\/a>\u00a0and find more information on related topics from the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service and\u00a0the\u00a0Healthy Community Design Initiative of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got together and produced a Parks, Trails and Health Workbook. \u00a0It is widely recognized that parks are critical to the health of communities and the people that live in them. \u00a0This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,21,12,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-physical","category-places-and-events","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2529,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/2529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Section 1: Community Health Profile<\/h1>\n
![\"Running](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/runninggroup-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>The premise here is that once one develops a community health profile using health\u00a0statistics and demographic data, one will have a pretty good idea of the types of people that will be using the park or trail. \u00a0That, in turn, leads to identifying funders in the health arena and development of facilities that best meet user\u00a0needs.<\/p>\nSection 2: Site Assessment<\/h1>\n
![\"ParkSitePlan\"](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/ParkSitePlan.jpg\")
Typically the location of the park will be known up front. \u00a0The site assessment gets at the existing features of the area including its assets and potential issues. \u00a0It doesn’t stop at the park boundary because surrounding features may impact the park and vice versa.<\/p>\nSection 3: Site Planning<\/h1>\n
![\"Park](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/parkbench-300x199.jpg\")
<\/a>For health, the idea is to use the park to encourage physical activity. \u00a0Depending upon the people that are expected to use it, this might include playground equipment, nature trails, baseball fields, running tracks and more. \u00a0At the same time the immediate health of users is an issue. \u00a0Plans need to include things like drinking water, shade, and resting places.<\/p>\nSection 4: Park and Trail System Planning<\/h1>\n
![\"Park](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/parksquirrel-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>A single park or trail is not independent. \u00a0They fit within a community and that community may have other parks and trails and other amenities. \u00a0This section looks at these broader relationships. \u00a0For example:<\/p>\n\n
Section 5: Monitoring and Evaluation<\/h1>\n
![\"Evaluation\"](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/evaluation-300x212.png\")
<\/a>Sections 1 and 2 are aimed at collecting data and information about the existing conditions in the area. \u00a0Once the facility is operational things will change. \u00a0Monitoring tracks those changes as compared to the initial situation while evaluation analyzes those changes to identify which things are working and which aren’t. \u00a0The knowledge gained in this exercise can lead to modifications to better meet the goals for the facility.<\/p>\nUsing the Workbook<\/h1>\n
![\"Workbook](\"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/WorkbookCover-300x232.jpg\")
<\/a>The workbook is quite open-ended\u00a0with ideas, questions and topics for group discussion. \u00a0The appendices then provide methodologies and help that can be used to:<\/p>\n\n
Please Share<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"