Parks After Dark: An innovative violence and chronic disease prevention strategy

BACKGROUND Parks After Dark (PAD) is a promising strategy to prevent violence and improve health in underserved, gang-impacted communities, providing recreational activities such as walking clubs, sports, and concerts, and health and economic resources at Los Angeles County parks since 2010. Structured programming during summer weekend evenings gives youth pro-social opportunities and improves social cohesion and safety. PAD communities have low socio-economic status, high rates of gang violence, childhood obesity and chronic disease, making them ideal candidates for public health intervention. Public health has been a key partner in this multidisciplinary effort along with Parks and Recreation and the Sheriff Department. PAD was recently funded to enhance its model through the addition of community intervention workers, a youth advocacy component, and increased health outreach. METHODS PAD 2012 will be evaluated using crime data, participant satisfaction data, feedback from community members and partners, and process evaluation of implementation. RESULTS Each summer, more than 30,000 community members participated, 97% of participants felt safe and 96% indicated they would participate again. There was an average of 4 violent crimes in PAD parks each year compared to 9 the previous year. We will discuss results from PAD 2012 including successes and challenges and describe promising practices for implementing summer park programs to reduce violence and improve health outcomes in gang-impacted communities. CONCLUSIONS Programs such as PAD demonstrate promising strategies to prevent community violence as well as chronic disease for community members of all ages. Multidisciplinary collaboration and community involvement are keys to program success.