Plan4Health Grant with Design4Active Sacramento

Project Background

Plan4Health connects communities across the country, funding work at the intersection of planning and public health. Anchored by American Planning
Association (APA) chapters and American Public Health Association (APHA) affiliates, Plan4Health supports creative partnerships to build sustainable, crosssector coalitions. Design 4 Active Sacramento (D4AS) seeks to create communities built for health and unites a range of professions to create streets that are conducive to safely walking, biking, and living through active design.

A major goal of Design 4 Active Sacramento’s work through the Plan4Health grant has been to create local champions at the community, staff, and elected levels. Additionally, through work with community groups, other CBOs, and professional organizations such as the American Society of Landscape Architects, we are hoping to create champions of a health and the built environment planning approach with non-traditional partners to help carry forward in more ways than one. Most significantly, they have worked to bring elected officials, especially those who serve on boards for organizations such as our regional transit provider and metropolitan planning organization, into this work. Examples include holding an educational mayoral forum with Sacramento mayoral candidates to inform them of our work and following up with in-person meetings about ways that a healthy communities approach can also advance their goals. Other efforts include working closely with the Sacramento Board of Supervisors Chair who is also the next chair of the Sacramento Regional Council of Governments to advance local policy initiatives while also advocating for this approach at the regional level. Empowering elected champions to carry forward a health and the built environment approach has also helped create opportunities for sustainability through funding initiatives such as Safe Routes to School work in local districts.