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  • Park Equity & Public Health Toolkit

Park Equity & Public Health Toolkit

PARKscore is a powerful, interactive mapping tool that uses GIS software to provide users with a scalable view of park and health resources in california communities.

Studies show that when people have convenient access to safe parks, they exercise more. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 25 percent of American adults engage in the recommended levels of physical activity, and 29 percent engage in no leisure-time physical activity at all.

Background - Why a Toolkit?
These pages offer tools for those interested in addressing these problems by creating, improving, and funding public parks, playgrounds, community gardens, and other settings for physical activity.

Resource for Community Leaders and Health Advocates Community leaders and parks-and-health advocates considering their communities' built environment and its effect on diverse health, social justice, environmental, and quality-of-life issues can use the resources in these pages. Right now, the focus is on California, but this tool kit also provides background information and/ models for communities elsewhere. Our comprehensive resource collection includes

• Step 1: Making the case. What are the facts about Parks and Health? Three downloadable pdfs that help make the case for increasing parks.
• Step 2: Understand park inequities in your neighborhood. What and where are the Park and Health inequities in California communities? At a glance statistics and sample maps show what and where inequities exists, and offer samples of a TPL mapping/analysis solution.
• Step 3: Examine the funding options.How can communities fund their new parks and programs? Links to comprehensive voting records, a handbook for creating financing and examples from the field.
• Step 4: Build community support. Into Action! How to build support for parks and health. TPL training materials developed to help raise awareness, introduce local public financing concepts, and demonstrate the park equity-mapping model.
• Case Studies. Examples from California Communities. Short pdf files documenting the process and outcomes of TPL's partnerships in three California communities.

Putting it all together
California PARKScore is an online resource that displays park and health-related information as an interactive maps that helps users make the case for increasing park and open space investments in their communities. This resource was made possible by a grant from the California Endowment.

For more information contact contact us.

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