Publication

Researchers found that the opening of a community garden had a statistically significant positive impact on residential properties within 1000 feet of the garden, and tht the impact increased over time. Gardens had the greatest impact in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Higher quality gardens had the greatest positive impact. Finally, researchers found that the opening of a garden was associated with other changes in the neighborhood, such as increasing rates of homeownership, and thus may be serving as catalysts for economic redevelopment of the community.

Concerns such as costs, liability and security frequently prevent after-hours recreational use of school facilities. This fact sheet from the National Policy and Legal Analysis Network (NPLAN) provides information to help city, county, and town governments utilize joint use agreements to partner with school districts and expand the availability of places to be physically active. 

The IOM Committee on Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth has developed a comprehensive national strategy that recommends specific actions for families, schools, industry, communities, and government.

The report builds on the IOM's 2005 report, Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, which was a congressionally mandated study that provided a blueprint to guide concerted actions for many stakeholders--including government, industry, media, communities, schools and families--to collectively respond to the growing obesity epidemic in children and youth.

This publication is a newly released resource, prepared by Prevention Institute on behalf of the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, to help build momentum for environmental change and policy approaches to improving health.

This publication is the first of a set of issue briefs prepared by Prevention Institute on behalf of the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership.

Food and eating environments likely contribute to the increasing epidemic of obesity and chronic diseases, over and above individual factors such as knowledge, skills and motivation. Four broad levels of influence are outlined in this paper: individual, social environment, physical environment, and macro-level environments.