Community participation and a willingness to take action are interrelated in their impact on health and safety outcomes. In Knoxville, an article in the local newspaper about a playground fire inspired one community resident to engage community  members in the rebuilding of Lonsdale Park.  So Gheen, president of Realty Trust Group,  gathered together Realty Trust volunteers and community residents to buy supplies and repair the playground. The project has brought about a sea of change and led to other projects to utilize open space and promote physical activity.

Join the National Recreation and Park Association, California Department of Public Health, and the City of Los Angeles for a free webinar on joint use. Speakers will discuss trends in joint use, the CDPH’s joint use mini-grant program, and present Los Angeles’s joint use aggreements as examples for developing successful joint use aggreements.

Speakers Include:

Valley Aquatic Center, the result of a joint-use agreement between Yuma Parks and Recreation and Yuma Union High School District, was named “Outstanding Facility of the Year” by the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association. YUHSD Superintendent Toni Badone commented,”The Valley Aquatic Center is a beautiful example of how collaboration between different agencies can benefit a community.” Since its opening in July of 2009, the facility has provided the opportunity for over 70,000 individuals to engage in phsyical activity.

Action for Healthy Kids developed Game On!, an online guide for elementary school staff, students, and families that provides useful information and resources for building succesful wellness programs.  Included in the online tool is an information section on using joint use to overcome the challenge of increasing physical activity.

In a recent article in Courier Journal Susan G. Zepeda, President and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, describes how  Kentucky businesses and local government are finding innovative ways to “make the healthy choice the easy choice.” She details joint use, among other strategies,  as an effective way to create safe places for children to play and exercise.

In February 2011 a new Alameda Boys and Girls Club is sleighted to open. The club will operate under a formal joint use aggreement between the Alameda Unified School District, the City of Alameda’s Recreation and Park Department, and the Alameda Boys and Girls Club. You can view their joint use aggreement and a video about the construction of the building which highlights the importance of joint use by clicking on the link above.

Loma Linda officials ask Redlands Unified School District representatives to take into consideration joint use opportunites and safety issues when deciding to re-open Mission Elementary School and offer ” 25 acres of City-owened land … for a future middle school and joint use park, supplying a strong foundation for the long-term vision of both RUSD and our community.”

 ”We’ve learned it’s wisest to work together, to marry our properties for the benefit of the taxpayers.”

Over twenty years of cooperation between public schools and cities in North Carolina has increased access to parks and benefited whole communities. Check out this great article which highlights the success of joint use efforts in Wake County, North Carolina.

Today the Center for American Progress released “The Rural Solution: How Community Schools Can Reinvigorate Rural Education.” Combining data from literature on rural communities, interviews, site visits, and the organizational experience of The Rural School and Community Trust, the report offers recommendations for overcoming challenges rural community schools face. One of those recommendations includes using joint use as a way to reduce costs to community school partners undergoing new construction projects. The report lays out specific recommendations states should take to make joint use more feasible for rural communities.

This report presents research findings and policy recommendations from a year-long process involving a diverse stakeholder group to establish a more effective “joint use” strategy in San Francisco that supports students, families, schools and communities. The report includes: a) detailed descriptions and diagrams of current SFUSD facility policies and processes; b) findings on current utilization, management, policy, and budget: and c) policy recommendations to encourage a “culture” of community use of schools that prioritize partnerships with organizations that provide programs and services to SFUSD students and that are aligned with the District’s goals.