February 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 56

BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS

Young volunteers in Helena, Montana,
helped to collect cigarette butts
discarded in local parks. Their efforts
led to the implementation of a
tobacco-free parks policy.

a blank stare of incomprehension. If
you ask the same question in 2016,
you would find almost universal agreement that parks and recreation are all
about health. In the past decade there
has been a groundswell of awareness
within the field of parks and recreation that health and wellness should
be important, mission-critical priorities, and that the public very much
wants these outcomes.
Mutual Goals Promote
Greater Cooperation
Alex Stone, a planner for the Rivers,
Trails and Conservation Assistance
(RTCA) program of the National
Park Service, which provides technical assistance to state and local
governments, says, " We all want to
have healthier communities, " while
pointing out that there have not been
good ways for parks and recreation to
validate improvements in community health. " The question for us was
how to integrate health in a meaningful way into our outdoor recreation
planning process. " She described efforts in Washington State that began
with their serving on a health advisory committee with state and local
representatives. This led to development of two pilot projects, one in
Moses Lake and one in Mt. Vernon,
north of Seattle. " It was clear to us
that communities wanted to expand
54	 Parks & Recreation

access to opportunities for improving
health, " Stone says.
Stone noted how even the vocabulary proved to be a barrier at the outset. What was an " intervention " and
what did this mean to communities?
Andrea Irland, an outdoor recreation
planner for RTCA working in Ohio,
said that the data-driven aspects of
public health can put off park and
recreation agencies not used to working in that framework. She agreed
that terms like " social determinants
of health " can also be daunting.
However, she noted that she has seen
much progress in the level of mutual
understanding. Health departments
are thinking upstream, being more
proactive and less reactive. They are
now thinking about how they can
be instrumental in helping to seek
grants, for example, for projects such
as the design and construction of a
local trail system.
RTCA worked with CDC to produce a workbook targeted at both
park and recreation professionals,
as well as health practitioners. The
Parks, Trails and Health Workbook
- A Tool for Planners, Parks and
Recreation Professionals, and Health
Practitioners is rich with information
on how to develop proven methods
of practice to enable cooperation
between health agencies and parks
agencies (see sidebar).

| F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 6 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

Health in All Policies Takes Shape
As awareness of the need for comprehensive health initiatives has
grown, public health agencies and
other health providers have begun to
promote the notion of " Health in All
Policies (HiAP), " a strategy to address the underlying conditions that
influence health. These conditions
are sometimes called the social determinants of health. The HiAP strategy also addresses issues of equity -
both health equity and social equity.
Leading national public health
organizations such as the American
Public Health Association (APHA),
NACCHO and the Public Health
Institute, support HiAP as a means
of improving public health through
collaborative approaches. Fundamentally, the belief is that in order
to improve the health of communities, health must be incorporated
into all aspects of decisionmaking
across all sectors.
While public health agencies have
been leading the charge to improve
health, HiAP points to non-traditional health partners such as parks, planning, housing and transportation, as
being vital partners in the effort to
change policies and environments
that promote health. The challenge
to implementing a HiAP approach is
that all sectors must work together to
improve underlying conditions that
affect health and reduce disparities
that now exist.
Examples of Collaboration
Show Enormous Potential
One of the more successful collaborations between a health agency and
a park and recreation department is
taking place in Helena, Montana.
Their cooperation has been enabled
by the fact that the heads of both
agencies work together in a variety
of ways through the city/county
administrative structure. " We have
a strong philosophy of working to-
February 2016 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2016 - Parks & Recreation
