Major funding to link health, smart growth

The nation’s largest charitable foundation dedicated to health issues, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has funded a new, $24.5-million project that links health and smart growth principles. Active Living Through Design, to be headquartered at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, will be led by Richard Killingsworth, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control and an expert on health and community design. The program will fund planning and implementation of projects in 25 communities. “It just so happens that a lot of goals of smart growth fit in very well with our objectives,” says Kate Kraft of Robert Wood Johnson. “We’re trying to reengineer activity back into people’s lives. Some of the increase in obesity and related chronic diseases are the result of inactivity and sedentary behavior.” Kraft notes that a growing body of evidence links community design — specifically that which follows smart growth/new urban principles — with an increase in walking. The foundation anticipates issuing requests for proposals in the spring of 2002.