Planning and Health
Healthy Planning in Our Communities
Valley Passage in Milwaukee, adjacent to the Urban Ecology Center at 37th and Pierce (photo by Cassandra Leopold)
Do you believe health should become a planner's number one priority? Check out these stories below! Between workshops, grants and a variety of programs, planners all throughout Wisconsin have been able to implement strategies that build sustainable and safe communities. Learn more about the success and be inspired to start something new in your community today!
Second Cohort of Wisconsin Healthy Communities Named
29 Wisconsin communities have been recognized "for their work to improve health in their communities" as a part of the Wisconsin Healthy Communities Designation program's second cohort. The inaugural designees were announced in 2018. Communities received either a gold, silver or bronze designation in the program offered by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI) in collaboration with a variety of statewide groups.
Want to learn more? Visit the WHCD website for more information about the program, the initiatives implemented by each community and to learn about the designation criteria.
Workshop on Building Healthy Communities in Wisconsin
In 2014, with funding from APA and the American Public Health Association (APHA), APA - Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Public Health Association offered a workshop on Building Healthy Communities. The funding allowed the leaders to produce three videos from the workshop. Each video is a different length:
- Raise your curiosity. Obtain a sense of the message APA-WI and WPHA are conveying with this 7-minute video
- Do you want to know more? The video “How to Primer,“ provides a sense of how to proceed as it will outline in an hour and 10 minutes what others have done in the Planning and Public Health Collaboration
Plan4Health in Wisconsin
Wisconsin has been fortunate to receive three Plan4Health grants from APA. Read more about the Plan4Health activities in Wisconsin.
More Resources to Plan for Health
Healthy Rural Community Design: A Scorecard for Comprehensive Plans (Charron, Lisa.Healthy Rural Community Design: A Scorecard for Comprehensive Plans–Version 3.1. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute; 2018).
Lead in Drinking Water, by Cassandra Leopold, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (an introduction and overview for planners) [pdf]
Shawano Farmers Market. The F.R.E.S.H. Project built capacity to improve access to healthy food by creating a coalition of planning and public health professionals, University of Wisconsin Extension staff, social service agency representatives, people working in the local food system, and community activists. Learn more in the Plan4Health section above.