Cleaning up Local Parks is a Family Affair

Not unlike children anywhere else in the state, children in two California counties want to go outside and play. Their parents agree. The only problem is that in their neighborhoods in Madera and Kern Counties, there aren’t any safe parks and limited opportunities for physical activity.

Madera and Kern Counties are part of the 240-mile long San Joaquin Valley. The San Joaquin Valley is a major agricultural region encompassing eight counties (Kern, Kings, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin) in central California. But the bounty of the land does not extend to the population; residents, many of them migrant workers, have among the lowest per capita income, highest rate of poverty, and least educational attainment in the state. All are factors contributing to high rates of overweight and obesity, particularly among the region’s youth.

With the aim to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic in the valley, the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP) was formed. CCROPP objectives are to improve the food and physical activity environments for Central California communities and to create momentum for widespread changes in the policies and practices that contribute to the rising rates of obesity in our region. CCROPP seeks to create healthier communities so that our residents can lead healthier lives. Through a three-pronged approach across the region, CCROPP brings together public health departments, community-based organizations, and community councils in each county.

In partnership with CCROPP, parents and children in these two counties worked to transform their physical activity environments. In Madera County, parents worried that parks and routes to and from the parks and school were not safe for their children. After having a police escort walk with them through their children’s potential routes in a walking assesment, parents joined together to create a neighborhood watch program. They established a home-based “watch plan” for the hours when children are walking to and from school, and a mobile “walking parents” program to help monitor the areas immediately around the school. Ten students at the local middle school also pitched in by helping conduct a door-to-door assessment in their neighborhood, also accompanied by a police escort. These students also serve as peer helpers in school and at local parks, helping ensure safety of other children. Brandie Campbell, Communications Specialist for CCROPP, says community-level approachs such as this are the bedrock of CCROPP’s efforts to prevent childhood obesity.

In Kern County, 100 families banded together to address an unsafe park in their neighborhood. Stiern Park was unfit for families; it was home to stray dogs, used needles, and abundant graffiti. Parents worked with city officials to establish a community-based clean-up program, where both parents and children worked together to clean up the park and playground equipment. “The whole thing grew out of the simple fact that families had no access to a safe park,” Campbell noted. Students at nearby Oliver Middle School responded through photos with a Photo Voice project about the unsafe park.

Today in Stiern Park, as the Children’s Advocate reports, broken lights have been replaced, graffiti and dogs removed, and police surveillance and maintenance efforts have increased. The City of Bakersfield Recreation & Parks Department now boasts of the park: “The first impression most people have when arriving at this park is the clean, neat, friendly appearance of the park.” The park is also the site of multiple physical activity opportunities, including outdoor aerobics classes (recently featured in the Los Angeles Times) and a new walking group. The Greenfield Walking Group – now up to 60 members – has been providing assistance to other groups who want to increase walkability in other cities. Members of the walking group have learned the numbers to call and people to talk to if further problems arise.

Through the power of family and the will to create safe spaces for physical activity, families in Madera and Kern Counties are one step closer to fighting childhood obesity in their communities. “These moms have been responsible for many positive changes in their own neighborhood, but more importantly, to their health and the health of their children,” said Jennifer Lopez, who works with the Greenfield Walking Group, in a MAS Magazine article. “They have shown the motivation and dedication to learning more about how they can not only help themselves but their neighborhoods as well.”