Youth alliance talks to partners about joint-use agreements
On June 21, the Hollister Youth Alliance brought many of the partners of the Dunne Park project together for a workshop at the Hollister School District.
The workshop, led by staff members from the nonprofit Public Health Law and Policy, talked with community members about planning for healthy living spaces and how to develop joint use agreements.
Some of the community representatives included members from First 5 San Benito, the San Benito Gang Prevention Task Force, the Community Food Bank, as well as staff members from various city and county offices.
Youth alliance talks to partners about joint-use agreements
On June 21, the Hollister Youth Alliance brought many of the partners of the Dunne Park project together for a workshop at the Hollister School District.
The workshop, led by staff members from the nonprofit Public Health Law and Policy, talked with community members about planning for healthy living spaces and how to develop joint use agreements.
Some of the community representatives included members from First 5 San Benito, the San Benito Gang Prevention Task Force, the Community Food Bank, as well as staff members from various city and county offices.
Lisa Faulkner, the change team leader for the Dunne Park project and the executive director of First 5 San Benito, said the group has received support from the Public Health Law and Policy group for the last year as part of a grant from the Health Trust.
Diane Ortiz, the executive director of the Hollister Youth Alliance, the agency that received the Health Trust grant, introduced the program.
“As many of you know we have the dubious distinction of being the No. 4 most distressed county in the nation,” she said. “We have some issues and kids are really looking to us as adults.”
Faulkner noted that as the advocacy grant from the Health Trust is nearly completed, she and the other partners are looking forward to the next step to keep the project moving.
“We want to integrate health and services,” she said. “We want to integrate a health and education plan.”
The Hollister Youth Alliance has put together 10 priorities for an education plan, and will be seeking additional grants to implement the programs.
Though Faulkner mentioned the priorities, the bulk of the workshop focused on ways that the city and county can incorporate healthy options through future planning or through joint use agreements.
“The exposure to different models and different groups that have been successful in doing the kind of effort we are trying to lead with this group,” was helpful, Faulkner said. “In one presentation slide, a healthy community showed complete streets.”
As the workshop began, Lisa Chen, a planning and policy associate, led the group through a slideshow presentation.
“A lot of policies are rooted in the idea of bringing about healthier communities,” Chen said. “We have been working with the Hollister Youth Alliance, and have had a proud partnership for a while. It’s wonderful to hear about the project and it’s been wonderful to see progress unfold.”
She started off showing the group an image of a community, and asking the community members whether it is healthy. The image showed a busy city center, with apartments over shops, little vehicle traffic and lots of people walking around. She asked residents to identify what made it healthy or not healthy. Then she showed an image of a freeway.
“It’s made for cars, not people,” someone said.
“A concern might be getting enough activity,” Chen said. “We are not only talking about healthcare but things we need for a healthy community. We are seeing social norms change.”
Chen talked about how changes to tobacco laws, outlawing smoking at restaurants and in public buildings, has lowered the rate of smoking.
“There is the same movement around planning,” she said.
In addition to planning for pedestrian and bicycle friendly communities, Chen talked about how zoning policy can change the types of foods that are available to people.
She said when looking at California’s retail food outlets, 14 percent of state residents live close to a supermarket and 3 percent near a produce stand. In contrast, 56 percent of residents live near fast food restaurants and 25 percent live near convenience stores.
“When you look at making decisions, it’s not as easy to make healthy choices,” Chen said.
She said that some cities are using zoning to limit where fast food restaurants can go, in much the same way cities sometimes zone for where bars or places that sell alcohol can be opened.
Chen said that in some cities, they have worked with the owners of corner stores to help them stock fresh fruits and vegetables.
“When you connect with owners sometimes all they need is a little help on how to do it,” she said.
The second half of the workshop focused on how joint use agreements can help communities get the most out of existing recreational facilities.
“Kids with greater access to recreational facilities are less likely to be overweight,” Chen said.
The idea of joint use agreements is not new to Hollister or San Benito County. The city of Hollister has contracted with San Benito High School this summer for use of the pool facilities, as they have in passed years. The county has also worked with rural schools to improve sports facilities.
“As far as shared and use leases, it validated what the city is already doing,” Faulkner said, of the second half of the workshop. “The city already has the capacity to do that…And different groups already go into Dunne Park Clubhouse and are able to use that. It just validated what we are doing here already.”
Though the types of changes that Chen talked about will take a lot of time and money, Faulkner was optimistic.
“One of the best things I heard from the presenter was in times when budgets are tight and resources are scarce, it is an ideal time to plan,” Faulkner said.
Dunne Park Project Priorities and Education Plan
1.) Implementing a comprehensive, high quality early learning and development system for all children, from birth to age five, ensuring children’s life-long success.
2.) Bridging birth to three, preschool, transitional K, K-3 and K-12 curriculum to include an integrated health strategy that more completely reflects the developmental needs of young children and supports their well being and healthy development.
3.) Strengthening after school infrastructure and building summer programs to deliver high-quality expanded learning opportunities.
4.) Leveraging early childhood data that tracks school readiness indicators from birth to kindergarten entry, connects to core curriculum K-12 assessments, and enables the evaluation of quality improvement and workforce development efforts.
5.) Establishing a comprehensive, longitudinal data system that connects early learning and development through higher education, health, juvenile justice, child welfare and other data in order to better track and address the educational outcomes and well-being of children throughout their lives.
6.) Improving the delivery of children’s services through a neighborhood-based approach that coordinates community health services including behavioral, medical, dental, vision and gang and bully prevention.
7.) Providing children and families in crisis and at risk of entering the child welfare system with the social services that support core needs, including housing and social services to ensure the families remain safe and stable.
8.) Improving area residents’ access to the internet, adult education, and career and job training opportunities.
9.) Strengthening early college outreach services and activities for families and children.
10.) Implementing a cross section integrated approach that is cost effective and maximizes potential and existing federal, state and local funding streams.
