Strengthening Community and Home Environments

Partnership

Key partners that can help educate the public and decision-makers about the need to improve the built environment include state and local government agencies (i.e., community development, planning, parks and recreation, transportation, and public health), community organizations, and local businesses or schools.

Education

Key Data

Focus on sharing information about how improving the built environment can expand the use of safe public spaces, encouraging community interaction and social engagement. Collect and share local improvements to community design, demonstrating how local agencies and communities collaborated to identify and implement these improvements.

Local Stories

Source stories directly from community members who have been positively impacted by improvements in their neighborhood, highlighting how it made them feel safer, more connected, and better supported by their community.

State Assessment

Determine whether the state has funding (federal, state, or local) to support efforts around improving the built environment, and if these resources are reaching communities and neighborhoods with the highest needs. Determine whether additional state- or local-level programming could further improve community design, including:

• Helping community members identify where there is a need for cleaning up underbrush and vegetation to improve green spaces, and collaborating with them to “green” these areas by planting grass or trees, or adding fences or small gardens.
• Facilitate ongoing maintenance of green spaces by community groups or members, and regular neighborhood cleaning events.
• Assess opportunities through state and local parks departments to provide or increase staffing of parks and other green spaces.
• Increase the number of parks and open spaces available to community members.
• Increase opportunities for alternative transportation (like trail systems) that improve access to parks, open spaces, and recreation centers available to community members.
• Fix and beautify buildings and homes. If necessary, remove abandoned or run-down ones.
• Increase the amount or brightness of streetlights in neighborhoods so it is easier to see, which improves community member’s feeling of safety.

Raising Awareness and Reducing Barriers

• Support informational campaigns about the importance of improving community design to create safe and welcoming public spaces that provide prosocial spaces for community members to connect. Ask policymakers to allocate resources to improve outreach about programs that may exist in the state to enhance built environment improvements.
• Back state or local agencies in accessing federal, state, or local funding for built environment improvements. 
• Support zoning or land use changes that transform vacant lots into open, green spaces or allow for the expansion of open spaces in communities, particularly in areas where there are fewer green spaces.
• Support local efforts pursuing:
  • Joint use agreements to share facilities with schools to increase the availability of safe places to play.
  • Community benefit agreements with housing developers to ensure community members have access to parks or open spaces as development occurs. 
• Provide resources to agencies or communities to support the maintenance of grass and trees in green spaces, ensuring their ongoing health and sustainability.
• Offer programs to homeowners or property managers to support structural improvements to buildings and housing, such as installing functional windows and doors, and removing or repairing deteriorated elements (e.g., shutters, decks, walkways, etc.).
• Determine whether implementing a vacant building ordinance is feasible. This ordinance would hold property owners or managers responsible for keeping empty buildings safe and well-maintained. It is important that communities agree on which properties should be demolished.

Partnership

Key partners that can help educate the public and decision-makers about the need to reduce community member’s exposure to harmful community conditions include state and local government agencies (e.g., community development, social services, transportation, and public health), community organizations, faith-based organizations, and local businesses or schools.

Education

Key Data

Focus on sharing information about how reducing community members’ exposure to harmful community conditions can increase safety, break the cycle of substance misuse and violence in communities, and improve the social and emotional health of community members. Collect and share local efforts to reduce these exposures, demonstrating how local agencies and communities collaborated to identify and implement them.

Local Stories

Source stories directly from community members who have been positively impacted by an effort to reduce harmful community conditions (e.g., an alcohol policy or a new safe route to school program), highlighting how it made them feel safer, empowered to make healthier decisions, and better supported by their community.

State Assessment

Determine whether the state has funding (federal, state, or local) to support implementing programs or policies that prevent exposure to high availability of substances or neighborhood violence, and if these resources are reaching communities and neighborhoods where these efforts are most needed. Determine whether additional state- or local-level programming could further reduce these exposures, including:

• Strengthening practices and policies for establishments selling substances, which could include:
  • Measuring your state or community’s alcohol outlet density, and determining the feasibility of local efforts to limit the number and location of establishments selling alcohol through licensing, density, or zoning regulations.
  • Determining whether a social host liability state law or local statute exists, which assigns responsibility to adults who allow minors to drink alcohol at social gatherings.
  • Increasing compliance checks in establishments to ensure they are not selling alcohol to minors.
  • Restricting alcohol marketing tactics and merchandising, so youth are not specifically exposed to product marketing. This may include limiting where products can be placed in stores to prevent children from being exposed.
  • Increasing the price of alcohol (including increasing excise or sales taxes) to reduce underage initiation and use in the community.
• Strengthening opportunities to ensure children and youth travel safely to school, which could include:
  • Determining whether state, local, or school policies exist that establish or support safe routes to school efforts.
  • Determining whether any efforts exist or could be enhanced, particularly in neighborhoods where there are high levels of violence (e.g., walking or biking school buses or trains, neighborhood watch, “eyes on the street”, community crossing guard programs, enhanced school bus availability to get to/from school).

Raising Awareness and Reducing Barriers

Support informational campaigns about any existing efforts that community members (in the case of safe route programs), establishments, or other businesses (in the case of reducing alcohol availability) should be aware of. In addition, support state or local agencies in accessing federal, state, or local funding for efforts to limit alcohol availability or enhance safe routes to school. And back regulations, zoning, or tax changes that limit the number of alcohol establishments.

Determine whether adjustments to state programs or policies would assist local communities in advancing efforts to create safe routes to school, particularly in communities with high violence. Finally, make connections across other efforts that are improving transportation systems for people of all ages to make the case that these can help 1) parents or guardians access work, 2) families access public spaces like parks and libraries, and 3) older adults access services so they can age in place. This helps leverage transportation funding to expand impact across all population groups.

Partnership

Key partners that can help educate the public and decision-makers about the health risks of lead and the need to reduce lead exposure include state and local government agencies, community and faith-based organizations, housing professionals (owners, managers, or contractors), and health care providers. Other housing partners could include housing authorities, property owners or landlords, real estate professionals and insurers, general contractors, and other companies involved in water systems or construction materials.

Education

Key Data

Focus on sharing information about how eliminating childhood exposure to lead from all sources can improve children's health and development. Collect and showcase state and local efforts that have resulted in reductions of these exposures over time, as well as gaps in these efforts.

Local Stories

Source stories directly from families who have been positively impacted by home or neighborhood improvements that reduce lead exposure, highlighting how it protected their child’s development and opportunities to flourish. For example, while homes with service lines with potential lead presence were being replaced, Denver Water provided free Brita water pitchers and filters certified to remove lead to families potentially affected.

State Assessment

Determine whether the state has funding (federal, state, or local) to support efforts that prevent lead exposure, and if these resources are reaching neighborhoods and children with the highest risk of lead exposure. Determine whether funds are available to support additional programming in local communities to further reduce exposure and its impacts, including:

• Abate lead-based paint in older housing via certified contractors and provide temporary housing while the residents are displaced.
• Replace water service lines that have lead pipes.
• Remove lead from soil surrounding homes and manage further contamination of soil.
• Respond to and provide follow-up services to children with elevated blood lead levels.

Raising Awareness and Reducing Barriers

Host and support educational campaigns that highlight ways to prevent childhood lead exposure, targeting the public and those who might be at the highest risk of exposure. Ask policymakers to allocate resources to improve outreach and ensure that groups supporting at-risk families provide information in multiple languages.

In addition, inform decision-makers about how they can enhance laws and policies that help reduce exposure to lead (e.g., rental registries). And support state or local agencies in accessing federal, state, or local funding to reduce or respond to lead exposure.

Partnership

Key partners that can help educate the public and decision-makers about the need to promote secure firearm storage include state and local government agencies, community organizations, and groups trusted by firearm owners about the use of and safety practices for firearms. This might include firearm businesses (i.e., gun shops), firearm instructors, or hunting or recreation groups.

Education

Key Data

Focus on sharing information about how encouraging secure firearm storage can protect against potential injuries or deaths in households (particularly for children) among those who have access to firearms. Collect and showcase trends related to authorized access and secure storage practices in your jurisdiction, as well as gaps in efforts to increase these secure storage practices.

Local Stories

Source stories directly from families who have been positively impacted by establishing secure firearm storage practices, highlighting how it increased their family’s safety during a time of crisis, giving them time to access care while the firearm is securely stored in their home or temporarily out of their home.

State Assessment

Determine whether the state has funding (federal, state, or local) to support efforts that encourage secure firearm storage, and if these resources are reaching populations with the highest access to firearms and risk for injury or death. Identify whether additional state- or local-level programming could further enhance secure firearm storage, including:

• Education on secure firearm storage within households to protect against unauthorized access by children or those in crisis — to the public (e.g., Agree to Agree, Let’s Talk Guns Colorado), through health care providers to firearm owners (e.g., BulletPoints, AMA Learning Module), and through firearm businesses to firearm owners (e.g., Gun Shop Project, Pause to Protect).
• Education on temporary and voluntary off-site storage and its availability in the state.
• Education on the Child Access Prevention law for states where it exists, or the need for the law to prevent unauthorized access among children in states where it does not exist.
• Partnerships with local organizations to provide free or reduced-cost safes or locking devices to families with firearms in the household.

Raising Awareness and Reducing Barriers

Support informational campaigns about the importance of secure firearm storage in protecting against injuries and deaths. Ask policymakers to allocate resources to improve outreach and ensure that groups already collaborating with families who own and access firearms provide them with information about safe storage.

Inform decision-makers about how they can enhance laws that show promise in reducing injuries and deaths involving firearms. Finally, support state or local agencies in accessing federal, state, or local funding to promote secure firearm storage.