ULI Building Healthy Places Toolkit

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20 Facilitate social engagement

  • Strategies
  • Insights
Photo: AECOM Asia Company Limited

Evidence Based Strategies

  • Create community gathering spaces—plazas, parks, dog runs, roof decks, and barbecue areas—to encourage social interaction and enhance opportunities for physical activity. Open these gathering spaces to the public to strengthen community ties.
  • Design on-site spaces to accommodate classes and programs that promote healthy activities, such as fitness, cooking, nutrition, and gardening.
  • Design spaces for maximum accessibility to allow people of all ages and abilities to participate. For example, apply universal design standards to access points for outdoor parks and plazas.

Best Practice Strategies

  • Develop a calendar of regular programming to keep community spaces activated and vibrant.
  • Hold larger events, such as movie nights, music festivals, art fairs, and holiday events, to bring out large numbers of people to projects and places.

Colleen Carey

President, The Cornerstone Group
Richfield, Minnesota
 
  • I believe that the real estate community has an essential role to play in creating healthier communities. The places that surround us can either contribute to the health and well-being of people and the planet or detract from it.
  • At my development firm, the Cornerstone Group, we are excited about the opportunity to create places of community change—places where art and artists, nature and open space, and opportunities for healthy living, lifelong learning and social connections are intentionally designed into our development projects.
  • We believe that now is the time to forge a new path and to raise the bar for future projects.

Urban Land Institute

The Urban Land Institute provides leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. ULI is an independent global nonprofit supported by its members.

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Building Healthy Places

The ULI Building Healthy Places Initiative is leveraging the power of ULI’s global networks to shape projects and places in ways that improve the health of people and communities.

Acknowledgements

The Center for Active Design served as contributing author and expert content advisor for this project.
The project was supported by the Colorado Health Foundation, the estate of Melvin Simon, and the ULI Foundation.

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