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Healthy Built Environments

Healthy Built Environments

The Health Promotion team works with rural and urban municipalities and community organizations to make the healthy choice the easy choice within the built environment. The built environment is the “human made or physical spaces in which people live, work and play. These include our homes, communities, schools, workplaces, parks/recreation areas, business areas and transportation systems”. The way we design and structure our built environments can either improve mental health, physical activity levels and nutrition or prevent our ability to be the best we can be.

Healthy built environments are made up of:

  • A food system that has safe, affordable and equal access to healthy food, protects and restores environment and supports the local economy;
  • Transportation networks that are safe, accessible, and prioritizes active transportation, such as walking or biking to places such as work, schools, parks and recreation and healthy food;
  • Neighbourhood design where people can easily access day to day services, which create chances for social interaction;
  • Housing that is affordable, accessible and free of environmental and physical hazards; and
  • Natural environments which are protected, connected and accessible for all to enjoy.

Our work with communities can range from helping to start community walking tours or bicycle paths to promote physical activity or working with neighbourhood corner stores or recreation facilities to increase access to healthy foods. We also provide further education sessions and workshops on healthy design and how to maximize your communities’ health potential. We talk with the community to identify a process that works for that specific community. The need is determined by the community, for the community.

Community Assessments: Partnered with the community, our focus is to assess and take action to reduce the risk factors and in the end increase the health in the whole community.

Review of Official Community Plans & Development Reviews: Working with a team (including Emergency Medical Services, Environmental Health and the medical health officer) development applications and official plans are looked at through a health lens. This lens blends traditional planning ideas such as land use, transportation, community facilities, parks and open spaces with healthy themes such as physical activity, public safety, healthy food access, mental health, air and water quality and social inclusion.

Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA): Tools are designed to do a complete active living audit of rural communities. This includes collecting data on physical environment features and amenities, community characteristics, community programs and policies that could potentially impact levels of physical activity among residents in your community.

For more information or for assistance in planning an assessment in your community,

please contact us at 306.766.7283 or [email protected]