The Maricopa County Department of Public Health (Maricopa DPH) is supporting a combination of grassroots activism to increase PA resources in under-resourced areas, and also working from the top down to get city and county plans more focused on active living.

At the grassroots level, they are working with a high-need, diverse elementary school (27 different languages spoken with English, Spanish, and Somali the most common) located in the Gateway District, an area classified as a recreational desert with only 0.02% park land compared with the overall Phoenix average of 1.35%. Drawing on support from school partners and community partners including the City of Phoenix Neighborhood Services department, a local artist, and the Somali Association of Arizona, Maricopa DPH facilitated the creation of a community‐created tile mural promoting PA and healthy eating for students, staff, and community.  In addition, Maricopa DPH collaborated with partners to create two walking path signs (one at the school and the other nearby) featuring the AZNN’s “Put a Little Play into Your Day” social marketing campaign that included a map of two walking paths.

From the top down, Maricopa DPH staff have been involved with commenting on and giving testimony during the development of city and county plans.  They also provided expertise to a Complete Streets advisory committee and a Shared-Use HIA for a local school district.  Finally, they participated in the Maricopa County Active Transportation Plan meeting and drew attention to including low-income voices in plan comments and using health data as part of the basis for decision-making in planning.  To solidify their top-down approach, in FFY16, Maricopa DPH hired an urban planner as part of their SNAP-Ed team.

“Hiring someone with urban planning expertise gives Maricopa DPH the advantage of establishing peer‐to‐peer relationships with municipal planners and the opportunity for future engagement in planning initiatives.”