LI Course
CE Hours: 6 contact hours

Partnership: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Planning Association, National Association of City and County Health Officials

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this Institute is to offer a "how to" for integrating public health issues and public health professionals into the land use and transportation planning process. Public health professionals have an important role to play in raising public health concerns as a priority in the planning process and in promoting healthier community design strategies. Because decisions made about the built environment impact a wide range of public health concerns, including pedestrian safety, obesity, water quality, and others, it is crucial for public health practitioners to learn strategic points of intervention in the planning process. This workshop will focus on different means and options to better integrate health into these processes (e.g. collaboration across disciplines, health impact assessments and other creative tools). These tools can be effective in identifying the health risks and potential alternative options and solutions early on for proposed development, transportation projects, or policies. The speakers will specifically address how collaborative tools and strategies are vital to developing and sustaining health communities at the local level.

Session Objectives: Overall workshop objectives 1) Describe the opportunities and strategies for better integration of health into land use and community design processes; 2) Identify ways to increase the roles of local public health agencies in the land use planning process; 3) Analyze the utility of different tools (e.g. health impact assessments, checklists, etc.) to proactively address health risks to create and sustain healthy living environments in own community; and 4) Plan ways to develop land use/planning collaborations, programs, or initiatives in own community. Agenda 9 - 9:15 Introduction and Overview: “Who is in the Audience” game - This is an icebreaker designed to encourage participants to get to know each other and learn about experience each brings to workshop for day. Objective: Relate with background and perspective other workshop participants bring to the discussion and activities for the day. 9:15 - 9:30 Jargon & terminology game - Session will discuss common jargon used by planners and public health practitioners. A shared understanding of such jargon is necessary for transdisciplinary collaboration. Objective: Recognize planning jargon and explain meaning of terms in relation to public health issues. 9:30 - 10:00 Planning “101” and fostering relationships between disciplines - Session will discuss basic planning principles and comprehensive planning process. Five strategic points of intervention will be identified where public health practitioners can engage in the planning process. Objective: Employ knowledge of planning process to incorporate health goals into land use/community design plans or policies. Break 10:15-11:45 Tools of the trade: Introduction and application of health impact assessments and other healthy development tools - Session will describe steps to undertake health impact assessments, environmental scan audits , and other processes that can be used to determine positive and negative impacts of built environment decisions. Presenters will describe types of data that could be used, and Objective: Explain health impact assessments and identify areas in community where a conducting health impact assessment might be productive. 11:45 - 12:30 Case Study - Lessons learned through collaboration - Session will showcase planning and public health partnerships that have utilized HIA, GIS and other related tools used to create healthier living environments by affecting changes in local policies or projects. The panel of health officials and planners will offer their perspectives of working with professionals from the other field and will provide an in-depth example of a health impact assessment conducted at the neighborhood level. Lunch 1:30 - 2:45 Getting started in your community: Interactive discussion - Facilitated discussion with audience focused on ways that health practitioners can make connections with planners, key factors for building relationships between health and planning practitioners, the benefits of building cross-disciplinary consensus on land use planning and development, and how health disparities can be addressed through land use planning/community design. Objectives: Plan how to form a partnership with planning officials in own community. Propose ways to address health concerns and disparities in own community through partnerships between health practitioners and land use planners. BREAK 3:00 - 3:45 Problem based scenarios. Participants form small groups to discuss scenarios involving proposed developments and policies, and potential resulting health ramifications. Objectives: Assess land use planning/community design proposals or policies for negative or positive health consequences. 3:45 - 4:30 Strategic planning discussion and take home messages - Session includes facilitated discussion and individual worksheet for participants to identify priorities in own community and brainstorm other key partnerships to engage in land use/community design collaboration. Objectives: Assess top priorities in own community for land use planning/community design program. Develop strategies to engage partners to address priorities identified. 4:30 - 4:45 Tools and resources - Additional tools and resources available are discussed and information is given to participants about where/how to find these tools. Objective: List where to locate additional resources. 4:45 - 5:00 Wrap up & evaluation - Session will answer any last participant questions and solicit evaluations from audience. Objective: Evaluate strengths, weaknesses, and knowledge/skills/tools gained through workshop attendance.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing