Planning Issues In Depth

SLO County’s Healthy Communities Gets Legs with the APA and Others

by Scott Bruce

The San Luis Obispo Sub Section of the APA has been helping move San Luis Obispo County toward being a model of community health. We joined a coalition of local organizations who have come together under the banner of Healthy Eating, Active Living — San Luis Obispo (HEAL SLO) as a result of the May 2011 remarks of Dr. Richard Jackson of UCLA during his “Designing Healthy Communities” presentation at Cal Poly.

With an ultimate goal of bringing together the comprehensive range of voices and efforts related to Community Health, HEAL SLO has over 40 member organizations.

A LITTLE HISTORY

In 2005–2006, the Public Health Department found that 29 percent of local, preschool children, 3–5 years old, were at-risk or overweight.  In 2009, Cal Poly, in partnership with the Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Program of Public Health conducted a study at 16 preschools measuring the height and weight of 512 children.  Data revealed that 37 percent of SLO County preschoolers were overweight or obese. Data from the California Department of Education, 2005-2006, show that 32.1 percent of SLO County 5th, 7th, and 9th graders are at risk or overweight and 68.4 percent are not physically fit.  According to the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) results for the Gold Coast Region in 2001-2005, 56.6% of adults were overweight or obese.

The severity of the obesity epidemic and the costs that will come with it later on in life inspired community action, including the Healthy Eating, Active Living – SLO (HEAL-SLO) Coalition.

HEAL-SLO was founded in 2005 comprising of loosely knit individuals.  Urged by Health Commission, PHD, and Community members, the Board of Supervisors endorsed the creation of a Childhood Obesity Prevention Task Force (COPTF) in Feb. 2006 to develop a county-wide strategic Action Plan(http://www.sloccf.org/forms/Giving-CN-ChildhoodObesity.pdf ).  County leaders funded SLO County Community Foundation to convene and facilitate the Task Force.

In 2007 the Community Action Plan was completed and made as a guide for collaborative efforts, which included recommended actions and funding for a Health Educator position housed within the Public Health Department to coordinate and maintain a functioning county-wide coalition.  The previously loosely knit individuals and the COPTF group solidified as the collaborative called HEAL-SLO through this process.

The HEAL-SLO coalition has been voted the lead umbrella organization for childhood obesity efforts in San Luis Obispo County and is made up of diverse groups and agencies. Its core mission is:

“To increase healthful eating and regular physical activity among children in SLO County by working at each level of the socio-ecological model, such as through policy, behavioral and environmental changes to promote and support a healthy lifestyle.”

When Dr. Richard Jackson, MD., spoke to us about healthy communities, he struck a chord among organizations with common goals, many of whom do not always work together and / or share their parallel efforts. The morning after the forum a room full of representatives from related organizations gathered, including:

• County Health Department
• County  Planning and Building Department
• Elected officials from SLO County and City
• Bike Coalition Members
• Cal Trans
• Lucia Mar Unified School District
• Cal Poly Center for Sustainability and STRIDE
• SLO Council of Governments
• Air Pollution Control District
• APA

OUR CURRENT EFFORT

Since that time a small working group has continued to meet, intrigued by the opportunity to leverage the gathering of this comprehensive range of organizations. Our “healthy communities” group represents a wide range of related  including food production, food preparation, exercise, land uses, circulation, health care, a range of age groups, environmental protection, air and water quality and more ………

The group currently includes representatives of:

• County Health Department
• County Planning and Building
• Cal Poly STRIDE (Center for Transitional Research In Diet and Exercise)
• Cal Poly Center for Sustainability (College of Agriculture)
• CCAN (Central Coast Agricultural Network)
• SLO County Community Foundation

In recent months, the group has come to realize that there is an opportunity to provide County decision-making bodies with comments for new discretionary land development proposals and for policy documents such as Community General Plans from the Healthy Communities perspective. To that end, group members from County Planning and Health Department have met with members of the Board of Supervisors and the County Health Commission with the result that there is support for the concept. The idea is that a Sub-Committee of HEAL SLO, providing comment via the Health Commission, will be passed along to County Planning and Building Staff.   There is interest in providing similar input for projects and policy documents that are being proposed within the seven incorporated cities as well.  This option will be discussed with the individual cities at a later date.

This is an exciting opportunity to “put legs” on our efforts as planners to help foster  more Healthy Communities, integrating physical form and land use with the social fabric, public psyche, food producers and health / exercise advocates that give communities life. It also provides a whole new perspective on the Health Commission, giving it a real voice and responsibility to have a more positive impact on community health.

Stay tuned for updates and opportunities to assist with this community effort.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 6th, 2012 at 10:27 pm and is filed under: Urban Design.