Resources for Your Community

• Physical Activity
• Healthy Eating

Physical Activity

Partnership building resources

• Active Living Resource Center: On-line technical assistance to help communities create active living environments.

Community Assessment Resources

• Making Your Community Walkable and Bikeable — A Guidebook for Change: from the Walking and Bicycling Suitability Assessment (WABSA) and Eat Smart Move More.
• Assessing Communities Needs and Resources from the Community Toolbox. A "how to" guide for over 15 different assessment methods that could be used to identify community needs, opportunities, or barriers.
• Community Assessment Tools from Healthy Carolinians community assessment guide book. Pages 17-18 outline the entire planning process in easy-to-follow steps. A long (over 200 pages) but well organized and useful document.
• National Park Service Community Toolbox: explains different types of surveys and their most effective uses.
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Cente''s Walkability Checklist and Bikability Checklist.
• Walkable Communities, Inc. is an organization dedicated to helping whole communities become more walkable and pedestrian friendly.

Community-wide campaign resources

• Communications and Social Marketing resources from Active Living by Design (recommended links: "Community Action Guide" and "Social Marketing Guide").
• Campaign and program ideas from the Centers for Disease Control.
• UNC-TV created a TV series and website on the Fit Community program

Creating a community inventory of physical activity facilities and opportunities

• NC Good Health Directory from NC Prevention Partners: search fitness centers by county.
• Do a web search of "Parks and Recreation Department" AND "your town/ city." See what local information you can find.

Creating on-going physical activity programs

• How to Start a Walking Program – a guide for program coordinators. This guide is designed to provide local coordinators with the steps needed to create successful walking groups in communities. It provides basic information and resources that can be adapted to any community. Created by the California Center for Physical Activity.
• Start a bicycling group / club – a 'how to' guide from the League of American Bicyclists.
• National Center on Physical Activity and Disability: information on health promotion, different disabilities, activities for those with disabilities, research, programs, publications, and more. Link to programs in North Carolina by county.
• Local Government Commision: Communtity Design: Communtity Design: includes "how-to" guidebooks, facts sheets, and useful websites on health, physical activity, bike and ped design, transporation and more to assist your efforts to plan a community program.
• Projects for Public Spaces: information on planning and design to create public places that build communities.

Physical activity policy resources for communities

• Bicycle advocacy information and Bicycle Friendly Communities Book from the Leauge of American Bicyclists.
• EPA's National Award for Smart Growth: The award winners demonstrate best practices in Smart Growth from 2002 – 2006.
• Winning with ACES: How you can work toward active community environments. A guide for local public health practitioners to work towards policy and environmental change. Includes informational and 'workbook' pages.
• Do a web search for resources on "Capital Improvement Plan / Planning / Program."
• NCDENR, Division of Parks and Recreation's preservation programs: initiatives to preserve and expand park and outdoor recreation resources available to all North Carolinians.
• Interview of Karen Stuart, mayor with an active living agenda: Learn her city's strategy to improving quality of life by creating a more activity-friendly policies and environments.
• Active Living by Design's "Recommended Tools" – scroll down on each webpage to find topics and resources of interest: - Parks, Trails and Greenways, Land Use, and Transportation.
• Physical Education is Active:: Best practices, advocacy, community, administration resources, and school-based goals and objectives to increase physical activity.

Physical Projects

• Active Living by Design's "Recommended Tools" – scroll down on each webpage to find topics and resources of interest: - Parks, Trails and Greenways, Land Use, and Transportation.
• City Repair Projects, Portland, Oregon: A list of projects undertaken by an all-volunteer, grassroots organization helping people transform thier public spaces into community gathering places.
• Trails for Health: Information and resources from the CDC about building, promoting and using trails as a way to expand access to physical activity for all members of the community.
• Community Success Stories from Eat Smart Move More NC.
• Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities, provides resources and tools on parks, transportation, buildings, and markets.
• League of American Bicyclists: information and resources to help municipalities create bicycle friendly communities.
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Information Center: information, tools, and resources for creating walkable and bikable communities.

Healthy Eating

Community Healthy Eating Assessment Resources

• "What's Cooking in Your Food System? A Guide to Community Food Assessment" : The Community Food Security Coalition presents case studies of nine research methods, strategies for promoting community participation, and ideas for translating an assessment into action for change. See table of contents to locate specific information.
• Community Food Project Evaluation Handbook : comprehensive guide to developing and implementing outcome-based program evaluation, specific to community food security projects. Toolkit includes evaluation protocols and template surveys for program satisfaction, farmers' markets, community gardens, community support for agriculture projects and farm to school projects. Note: a fee is required to access the information.
• Learn about Food Policy Councils
.

Community-wide campaign resources

• Food Security Learning Center, Take Action! : strategies and resources to help begin the process of community mobilization around healthy eating and nutrition issues.
• Healthy Eating Blueprint from Eat Smart Move More NC: information about a statewide campaign to promote healthy eating and increase physical activity.
• American Heart Association, Diet and Nutrition : nutrition facts, dietary recommendations, recipes and more.
• UNC-TV

Nutrition Education Resources

• Healthy Eating programs in North Carolina. . From the NC Prevention Partners searchable database.
• Expanded Food Education and Nutrition Program (EFENP) from Cooperative Extension is designed to assist limited resource audiences in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and changed behavior necessary for nutritionally sound diets, and to contribute to their personal development and the improvement of the total family diet and nutritional well-being.
• Program Profiles from Food Security Learning Center : six successful community-based healthy eating programs, contact information, and links to other program resources.
• We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition!) : A community-based program targeting parents and caregivers of children to encourage healthy eating and increase physical activity.

Healthy food choices - policy resources

• Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning : from the American Planning Association.
• Healthy Eating by Design resources : Key resources that inform the issue of community-wide healthy eating. Each link contains an overview of the pertinent website to help identify useful information.
• Nutrition and Physical Activity Policy Database : A searchable tool from the CDC.
• Healthy Youth! Local Wellness Policy Development Tools from the CDC: provides resources for schools to assist with the development of local wellness policies.
• Good Health Directory from NC Prevention Partners : search for nutrition resources by county.

Expanding access to healthy food venues

• Farmers' Markets resources from Food Security Learning Center: background on the benefits of farmers' markets and links to help communities initiate successful farmer's markets.
• Community Garden resources from Food Security Learning center: background on the benefits of community gardens and links to help communities initiate successful gardens.
• How to Establish a Farmers' Market on Federal Property : USDA guide.