Resource Library

There is a growing conversation about and demand for joint use as a way to provide services to children and families in convenient locations, improve opportunities for physical activity by increasing use of school recreational and outdoor spaces, leverage capital investments, and more. 

This tool serves as a guide to assist North Carolina schools and communities to develop and implement joint use agreements. 

Key Takeaway: Driver compliance with a state law to yield to pedestrians was highest at crosswalks with more safety features.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Changes to the built environment can be an upstream intervention opportunity for determinants of high-priority health challenges like childhood obesity and should be an important consideration for planners.

Key takeaway: Pedestrian collisions are more strongly associated with built environment features than with proportions of children walking

School boards have a crucial role to play in supporting shared use in school districts. 

Principals can play a key role in championing shared use in their school systems. Principals are responsible for supporting the academic success of their students, and also for acting as a liaison to parents and the community. 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

• Physical activity practices at schools may differ by school socioeconomic status.

This webinar is part one of a series of two webinars that will explore in depth tried-and-true methods for working with volunteers in Safe Routes to School programs and other school-based volunteer initiatives.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Pedestrian fatalities are disproportionately higher in neighborhoods with lower incomes.

The independent and joint effects of family and neighborhood poverty and ethnicity upon weight trajectories from age two to six-and-a-half were examined using data from the Infant Health and Development Program (N = 985), an early intervention program for low birth weight children and families.

Childhood obesity has more than tripled in children and adolescents in the past 30 years. 

Uso Compartido: Aumentar el Acceso a la Actividad Fisica

Innovative school districts, such as the one in this case study, have opened their facilities to the community to address both students’ and the communities’ need for recreational activity spaces through shared use agreements. 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Walkable built environment characteristics were associated with lower BMI z-scores (i.e., BMI compared to normal growth curves) among children.

Communities across the country are addressing chronic disease through a variety of innovative healthy eating and active living strategies. 

Superintendents can serve a critical role in supporting shared use. 

Ohio’s obesity rates, especially for children, are unacceptable. 

Partnerships between school districts and community-based organizations to share school facilities during after-school hours can be an effective strategy for increasing physical activity. 

Despite the growing interest in expanding the joint use of K–12 public schools by public health and planning practitioners to promote healthy, sustainable communities, the topic has received little attention in the urban planning and public health scholarship.