KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - Residents at two local public housing communities will benefit from efforts to promote physical activity and healthier living, thanks to a new competitive $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to partners in King County.

“We are committed to working with our residents and partner organizations to improve the health and well-being of our communities,” said Mark Okazaki, executive director of Neighborhood House.

The Partners for Fitness and Healthy Living project will serve as a model for other public housing developments. The project lasts five years and expands work already underway in High Point and begins new activities in Greenbridge.

Community partners are working together to develop and evaluate new ways to increase physical activity and other healthy behaviors in the two communities. They will focus on improving:

• the built environment, by for example making streets more walkable and safer for pedestrians and increasing access to community gardens
• the community environment, by for example making it easier for people to work together to improve their communities and bringing them together in walking or cooking groups

Members of these ethnically-diverse communities will drive the process to create the social and environmental conditions they want in their neighborhood.

Organizations participating in this project include Neighborhood House, King County Housing Authority, Seattle Housing Authority, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center, and Public Health - Seattle & King County.

Physical activity helps to decrease obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, but the majority of adults nationally, especially those in low-income communities and communities of color, do not get recommended levels of daily physical activity that can help keep them healthy.

Early successes by the High Point community include the creation of walking groups, which are attended regularly by community members. Additionally, residents have worked with local organizations to increase opportunities for walking by improving pedestrian safety conditions, making a walking map, and clearing walking areas.

Providing effective and innovative health and disease prevention services for over 1.8 million residents and visitors of King County, Public Health – Seattle & King County works for safer and healthier communities for everyone, every day.

# # #