Linking Safety Promotion & Crime Prevention to Obesity Prevention

The Greenfield Walking Group serves as the Kern County Obesity Prevention Task Force for the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Task Force, an initiative of the Public Health Partnership funded through the California Endowment. Thanks to successes in community engagement and built environment outcomes, the group's efforts are shaping community design policies and gaining wide recognition. For example, the group was selected as an organizational snapshot by the Prevention Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in their document, "Mapping the Movement for Healthy Food and Physical Activity Environments in the United States". The group is composed of community residents who reclaimed a park to improve opportunities for accessible, safe places to play. In collaboration with city officials, the group conducted a walkability assessment to combat gang recruitment, drug dealing, graffiti, aggressive stray dogs, and lights that had been shot out. Their efforts have encouraged the development of programmatic park-based activities, like community-led aerobics classes, as well as environmental design changes fostered largely by a partnership with elected officials, city departments, and community based organizations specializing in youth violence prevention. Notable physical changes in the park, like a new walking path and playground equipment, stem from their unique bottom-up and top-down teamwork to create sustainable, accessible, safe places to play. This presentation will describe how these residents made their park a safer and healthier place, how their findings clarified the connection between obesity and violence prevention, and how their efforts have informed city policies that promote healthy and safe communities.