The Community Assessment Project

 

 

about the built environment

Deteriorating housing, inadequate access to health care, poor schools, unemployment, crime, and poverty create a network of conditions that may lead to negative impacts on the well-being of communities. This pattern is especially severe for low income and minority communities, with significant health implications for both adults and children.

Elements of the built environment can influence health through direct exposure and indirectly by creating social stress and influencing patterns of risky behaviors. The built environment includes:

• residential and commercial buildings
• roads and sidewalks
• churches, schools, and community centers
• parks
• empty lots and vacant structures

The Children's Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) seeks to understand the relationship between the built environment and public health and work with stakeholders to identify ways to improve Durham's built environment.

CEHI Field Team members planning the assessment. Photo courtesy of the Herald Sun, 2008.

 

about the project

Motivated by increasing evidence regarding the relationship between public health and the built environment, the Community Assessment Project was conceived with two key goals:

• Provide community residents with maps of the built environment to support residents' efforts to improve quality of life; and
• Elucidate the relationship between the built environment and health.

Six key themes underlie the Community Assessment Project:

1. Housing characteristics
2. Neighborhood conditions
3. Community resources
4. Food access
5. Neighborhood safety
6. Demographics

CEHI Field Team members conduct assessment on the built environment. Photo courtesy of the Herald Sun, 2008.