Public Health and Land Use/Redevelopment: Creating Community Health Indicators

Because of real or perceived contamination, Brownfields/land reuse sites can adversely impact community well-being, creating a critical need for public health involvement. These sites typically are in lower socioeconomic areas with limited access to healthy foods, recreation, and jobs. Crime and poverty rates tend to be higher. In addition, low educational attainment; low property values and a higher percentage of deteriorated housing; and elevated blood lead levels in children are further disadvantages. Living among properties in need of revitalization can reinforce a climate of poor health and other disparities.

There is a need to measure community health in these areas and evaluate the benefits gained by redevelopment. Using the grass-roots ATSDR Brownfields/Land Revitalization Action Model, a diverse development community comprised of residents, city planners, government, non-profits, public health, and environmental health stakeholders can create and track many public health indicators associated with redevelopment.

Sessions participants will practice using an Action Model framework that includes traditional health indicators such as asthma or blood lead levels as well as community-driven indicators such as access to recreation or grocery stores. Participants will help develop revitalization approaches to address community issues, identify corresponding health benefits, and create additional indicators to measure community health status over time. This session can accept 50-60 people.