WALKSacramento is proud to announce that Design 4 Active Sacramento (D4AS) is one of the winners of the Center for Active Design: Excellence awards. The Center for Active Design, based in New York City, defines Active Design as an evidence-based approach to development that identifies urban planning and architecture solutions to support healthy communities.
D4AS, a cross-sector team of professionals in health, planning, transportation, and architecture, drew inspiration from New York City’s evidence-based Active Design Guidelines. The team successfully incorporated Active Design-oriented language in Sacramento County’s Zoning Code and Design Guidelines adopted by the Board of Supervisors in September of 2015.
The Design Guidelines feature an Active Design icon that makes health-promoting strategies easy to spot. D4AS also authored an appendix to the design guidelines that describes Active Design and explains why it is crucial to reducing chronic disease and promoting health and sustainability for Sacramento residents. Through these successes and other ongoing initiatives, D4AS continues to elevate health across the region and state as a key priority for shaping the policies that guide future healthy community development.
D4AS is now under the umbrella of WALKSacramento and continues its work as the Design 4 Active Sacramento Advisory Council. Members of the Council include Judy Robinson, D4AS Advisory Council Chair, Teri Duarte, MPH, Adrian Engel, PE, LEED AP, Olivia Kasirye, MD, Monica Hernandez, Edie E. Zusman, MD, Sara Carr, PhD, Mark Thorton, MD, Charlene Hauser, MD, Glennah Trochet, MD, and Caroline Peck, MD.
Contact Kirin Kumar at WALKSacramento (kkumar@walksacramento.org) or Judy Robinson at Sacramento County (Robinsonju@saccounty.net) to learn more. This work continues to be expanded to communities within the Sacramento region through initiatives funded by the Centers for Disease Control and the California Strategic Growth Council. Our work includes:
- Technical Assistance trainings at the staff, commission, and elected levels
- Policy analysis and development assistance for further integration of HEALTH into policies and guidelines
- Broader education and outreach to professionals throughout Sacramento
- Development review through a health lens
- Grant writing technical assistance
- Project and program consulting
For more information about how you can take advantage of our FREE technical assistance, please contact us at 916.446.9255 of kkumar@walksacramento.org
Additional news about our work
- Sacramento Codifies Healthy Design at All Scales, Center for Active Design
- Building Well-Being: Linking the Built Environment to Health, Hawai‘i Journal of Medicine & Public Health
- An NLAPH team in Sacramento County develops policies for bikeable and walkable communities, Center for Community Health and Evaluation
- Moving toward implementation: The potential for accountable care organizations and private–public partnerships to advance active neighborhood design, Preventative Medicine