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Newsletter
Summer 2005
Healthy Children, Healthy Communities
 Low
income communities in urban areas are disproportionately denied
the benefits of safe open spaces for physical activity in parks
and schools and disproportionately suffer from diseases related
to obesity and inactivity. Through advocacy and public education
campaigns, legal services providers can help communities achieve
equal access to schools, parks, and green spaces for healthy children
and healthy communities.
The City Project has published an article to help legal service providers
improve human health and the quality of life for traditionally
underserved communities through equal access to schools, parks,
and green spaces. The article Healthy Children, Healthy Communities,
and Legal Services, published in a special issue on Environmental
Justice for Children in the Journal of Poverty Law and Policy by
the National Center on Poverty Law and the Clearinghouse Review
(May-June 2005), provides recommendations to incorporate human
health, urban equity, and sustainable regional planning into legal
services advocacy. The full article can be found online at www.cityprojectca.org/publications/health.html.
California State Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) invited The City Project and others to form a working group to recommend programs
to promote physical activity among California’s children
and adolescents to be funded from a proposed bond measure. Our
recommendations include:(1) improving PE classes; (2) promoting
physical activity throughout the day; (3) promoting walkable neighborhoods;
(4) increasing availability and access to parks and recreational
facilities; (5) supporting programs promoting physical education;
and (6) supporting a mechanism to measure effectiveness of programs.
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