Communities Putting Prevention to Work

The National Complete Streets Coalition is joining with the Department of Health and Human Services to to apply stimulus money in a new type of prevention effort. The Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program is designed to address factors like poor nutrition and inactivity that lead to premature death.

But instead of the approaches you’d expect – ad campaigns and educational efforts aimed at individuals – HHS has determined that success will only come if we can, in the words of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ursula Bauer, “redesign our communities to promote health instead of disease.” This is where Complete Streets comes in: as an effort that will help create inviting places to walk and bicycle over the long haul. We were invited to serve as faculty at a recent series of three Action Institutes held for the communities receiving the CPPW funds. Each community has assembled a diverse team that goes beyond public health agencies to include elected officials, planners, business interests, advocacy groups, and others, who are charged with making change in just two years.

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