Planning and Community Health Research Center

Education

Training and technical assistance for planners and allied professionals as well as guidance for the next generation of planning and public health officials are essential to educating a variety of stakeholders on how to create healthy, sustainable communities.

Current Activities

Healthy Communities Webinar Series

With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity and in collaboration with APA's Healthy Communities Interest Group, the Planning and Community Health Research Center is developing a series of six webinars that will focus on the role of planning in creating healthy communities that support physical, social and mental well-being.

Webinar 1: Planning and Implementing the Active Community

Webinar 2: Planning for Food Access and the Regional Food System

 National Planning Conference

Each spring, APA hosts a national conference that showcases the latest research, case studies, innovative ideas, and best practices in the field of planning. This conference attracts planners, appointed and elected officials, architects and landscape architects, engineers, health professionals, food system planners, and a variety of other allied professionals.

Conference tracks have centered on the following topics: transportation, climate change, food systems planning, and health. A variety of health-related sessions from the 2009 conference in Minneapolis are available for viewing online.

Eating Local at the Conference

Each year, the center works with community-based organizations to develop a regional food systems guide for conference participants. Each guide includes a list of food-related organizations, community gardens, farmers markets, food stores, restaurants, and breweries that support social, economic, and environmental health and sustainability.
Boston( pdf)
Minneapolis/St. Paul (pdf)
New Orleans (pdf)

Planning for Healthy Places with Health Impact Assessments Online Course

This online training course is a "how to" guide for conducting health impact assessments (HIA), developed by the American Planning Association and the National Association of County & City Health Officials, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Past Activities

Healthy Communities through Collaboration

In 2003, a partnership between APA and the National Association of County and City Health Officials began to restore the bridge between land-use planning, community design, and public health practice.