Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal is for cities or companies to reduce their carbon footprint. For example, research shows that buying 100 percent green power is the most significant step the City of Bellingham can take to protect the climate; it would eliminating more than 65 percent of the global warming pollution caused by municipal operations.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: The goal of GreenScapes is to encourage companies and organizations to make more environmentally conscious landscaping decisions and to reduce, reuse, recycle and rebuy.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families

Goal: The aim of the Growing Healthy Kids Project is to support nutrition, healthy eating, and family unity among local families by providing community gardening space.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: ReStore Kansas City was created to be an entrepreneurial, fundraising arm for Habitat for Humanity Kansas City through sales of donated new and used building materials, furniture and appliances. By salvaging useable materials from people who no longer need them, ReStore is saving space in landfills, giving the public affordable materials, and helping to further the mission of affordable housing in the Kansas City area.

Impact: Two stores raised more than $5 million and approximately 60,000,000 lbs. of material were diverted from going into the local landfill.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Hair, Heart & Health program embraces the notion that health education at the community level is an effective intervention strategy for preventable diseases like CHD, stroke and kidney disease.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of school-based health centers is to reduce gaps in education and increase health equity in low-income communities.

Impact: When targeted to low-income communities, school-based health centers are likely to narrow gaps in education and improve health equity.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to ensure that city planning and policy making accounts for how land use development impacts community health resources.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance

Goal: The goal of Health in All Policies is to ensure that health effects are routinely taken into consideration when developing policy.

Impact: Health in All Policies initiatives have helped create healthier communities through implementing policies with health consequences in mind. For many counties, this includes creating cross-agency teams and workgroups to address problems in their community.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The goal of Health Leads is to provide patients with access to various things, besides medication, that they need to improve their health.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate during every visit, to assist patients in developing a longitudinal personal record of medical history and care plans, and to provide a tangible way to engage patients in their own care. The overarching goal was better compliance, recognition of medication side effects, and improved adherence to specific and agreed upon lifestyle changes.

Impact: Sixty percent of patients participate in care plan tracking with a health notebook, and 80% percent of patients complete a prep form to help organize visits.