Active Living by Design

LSNA is one of 25 sites across the country to participate in the "Active Living by Design" Initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  The overarching goal of the program is to increase physical activity by community design.  To download the Logan Square profile, click here.  If you would like to visit the Active Living by Design website, click here.

Download a copy of "Active Living Logan Square-Joining Together to Create Opportunities for Physical Activity" from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine written in part by LSNA's Lucy Gomez-Feliciano.

Background: The Active Living Logan Square target audience is the community of the southwest corner of Logan Square, an urban Chicago community of 84,466 residents, mostly Latinos.
Through the Active Living by Design (ALbD) initiative, the Logan Square Neighborhood
Association leveraged its 48 years of existence in the neighborhood to create opportunities
and build partnerships.

Intervention: Activities addressed three primary goals: (1) enhance school environments and practices to support physical activity before, during, and after the school day; (2) encourage individuals
and families to enjoy outdoor activities in their own communities; and (3) create safe,
inviting places for activity that connect to surrounding communities. The partnership’s
participatory approach involved a variety of community stakeholders in developing and
implementing affordable, accessible, culturally acceptable, and sustainable physical activities
for children and their families.

Results: The partnership successfully piloted Open Streets (temporary street closures) and advocated
for development of the Bloomingdale Trail, an elevated rails-to-trails project. In
schools, the partnership changed the culture at McAuliffe Elementary to support healthy
behaviors through new policies, physical projects, and programs.

Lessons learned: Vital components of the project’s success included a full-time coordinator with strong
community ties; time to build healthy relationships within the partnership and community;
the use of culturally relevant strategies; and flexibility to welcome complementary
opportunities.

Conclusions: The partnership intentionally did not produce a single community-recognized campaign;
instead, it chose to use limited resources to promote tangible programs and
projects that led to sustainable and replicable changes that promote physical activity.
(Am J Prev Med 2009;37(6S2):361–367) © 2009 American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Download the complete article here.