Creating a culture of community, health and safety at parks

When people work in tandem to create healthy, safe communities, they can accomplish ambitious goals and have an impact that no organization could achieve through a stand-alone effort. This presentation illustrates how a strong partnership among local groups that oversee parks, safety, and public health can successfully address violence, chronic diseases and inequities at once.

 Parks After Dark transformed parks in low-income neighborhoods into safe, welcoming places where children and adults could be active, build social connections, and access health and social services. Six parks extended their evening hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the summer months and offered a wide range of activities such as organized sports and exercise programs, arts and crafts, free concerts and movie screenings, and classes on healthy cooking, literacy, juvenile justice, parenting, computer skills and more.

 The parks drew almost 237,000 visitors from 2010 to 2014, and 91 percent of participants surveyed said they felt safe. A 2014 rapid health impact assessment of the Parks After Dark initiative in Los Angeles County demonstrated that it boosted physical activity and decreased serious violent crime in neighborhoods especially affected by violence and chronic diseases, resulting in significant cost savings to the county. Parks After Dark was honored as an Exemplary Large County Practice for Advancing Health Equity in 2014.