Delaware Association for Public Administration DAPA Public Service Reader
Online Healthy Communities Resource Guide
—by Marcia Scott | download PDF 
Promoting active living means more than just building sidewalks, trails, recreation facilities, and walkable infrastructure. Communities need to develop public policies and plans that encourage “smart growth,” build strategic partnerships to develop a community consensus, leverage grant funds, and develop recreation activities and events to promote use of parks facilities and walkable infrastructure.
Communities with mobility-friendly components don’t just happen by accident. Policymakers, community leaders, and other stakeholders should develop a vision for the overall health of their community and act to create a healthy community legacy. Local governments need to make improvements to the built environment and implement public policies to support active-living initiatives and a pedestrian-friendly environment. If you build it, will they come? Not necessarily. Once built-environment improvements and public policies are in place, social marketing and recreation programming are needed to promote awareness and use of facilities.
The University of Delaware’s Institute for Public Administration (IPA) recently developed Healthy Communities: A Resource Guide for Delaware Municipalities as an online resource to provide tips on fostering a culture of wellness in Delaware’s communities. The Resource Guide was written to guide stakeholders through the process of planning a livable community and focuses on the need to involve the public throughout each phase of the process.
Municipal managers, parks and recreation administrators, local elected officials, planning commission and advisory board members, and citizens will find a wealth of useful topics within the Resource Guide. Such topics include the following:
- an overview of community assets of walkability
- national, state, and local policy initiatives for walkable communities
- identifying stakeholders and strategic partners to catalyze change
- planning a pedestrian-friendly community
- technical assistance and funding resources
- promoting physical activity through recreation programming
- case studies of successful livable initiatives by Delaware municipalities
To view or download Healthy Communities: A Resource Guide for Delaware Municipalities, visit IPA’s health policy publications page.