Partners compiled a collection of best practices of traditional community institutions incorporating health and wellness into their agenda and programming to improve community health. The best practices focus on improving the health of at least one of three constituencies: distressed communities, at-risk youth, and the vulnerable elderly.
Examples of institutions include arts and culture organizations, botanical gardens, community development corporations (CDCs), faith-based organizations, libraries, museums, public markets, and zoos.
Click here to download Creating the Healthy Community - Using All Assets: Institutions as Fulcrums of Change
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Terms:Aging, Community Building, Community Development, Community Engagement, Creating The Healthy Community, Cultural Institutions, Health & Wellness, Healthy Communities, Institutions as Fulcrums of Change , Intergenerational, Libraries, Program Areas, Public Health
For many counties throughout the United States, the public library system plays an important role in the community, serving as a center for social, cultural, and educational activity. These institutions have become especially important to the homeless and low-income families who may not be able to afford the amenities provided by the library. Pima County, Arizona’s public library system, however, began a program in 2010 that strives to serve another growing need that many communities throughout the country face – access to healthcare.
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Undoubtedly the turn of the 21st century has been a crossroads for communities across America. Planners are becoming more uncertain of which road to take to towards livability, the latest and most thought out models of revitalization being thrown into disarray by constant redevelopments in technology and the unforseeable factors that mediate the outcome. But as the unfolding of the digital age propels us into the unknown, there is one thing that is certain—education is a key to building a more vibrant and sustainable community.
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Public libraries have transformed themselves from mere book-lenders into hubs of social and economic activity. In a recent column, journalist Neal Peirce details how libraries are adding new services ranging from lending gardening tools and hosting chess club meetings, to providing job search assistance and English instruction. Peirce quotes Partners’ president Robert McNulty regarding the transformation: "Central libraries, notes Robert McNulty of Partners for Livable Communities, can be “the great good place in the city” — as a literacy, Internet and special film center, or as a place for lectures, for local performing arts and exhibitions. Or as a coffee house. Or as an information center for visiting tourists, or a safe place for kids."
America’s public libraries, fast turning themselves into “one-stop shops” for digital job searches, appear to be staging one of their great historic transformations.
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