Narrator: The Guide to Community Preventive Services
What Works to Promote Health presents
The Community Guide in action
Creating Walkable Communities
in Rural Granville County, North Carolina
The Community Guide includes Task Force findings and
recommendations to reduce obesity
and increase physical activity.
Obesity is a growing health problem in the United States;
and barely half of U.S. adults
and a third of high school students
meet current physical activity standards.
We know that increasing physical activity is one way to combat
obesity and the chronic diseases associated with it.
We also know that people need safe,
convenient, and pleasant places to be physically active.
Granville County, North Carolina is addressing this challenge
by using Task Force recommendations
for environmental and policy approaches
to promote physical activity.
The Granville Greenways Master Plan
outlines a built environment that promotes active lifestyles
by providing places for people to be physically active.
Brian Alligood: Our Greenways Master Plan is an overall plan
that looks at the entire county and looks at areas where we can
make connecting points, not only locally,
but nationally.
The process started locally and then as it grew it looked at how
can we tie in, as well, to those existing trails,
what are those factors that are detriments
to the community's health and how can we address those?
And this was one of those things that fit right in.
Jackie Sergent: My role in the Greenways Project began when
I was the primary coordinator for our community health assessment
process here in Granville County.
At the end of that process we had determined
a number of priority areas to focus on.
One of them was abating the premature death rate
from various chronic diseases; heart disease, cancer and diabetes
were the key areas.
We formed a work group to address these problems and
determined that we wanted to do environmental and policy change
interventions to try to make an impact on the early death rate
from chronic disease.
One of the resources that I used was The Community Guide
which helped inform those of us working in public health
about the types of interventions that can actually make a difference.
And that led us to creating or increasing access
to places for physical activity.
Hubert Gooch: The people in Granville County have been,
for the most part, very receptive to the—
we had some individual cases,
property owners who have been sort of
anti-trails because they did not want them crossing their property—but
presently we have two completed trails in Granville County.
The first one we built we built in Butner.
It was built mostly on public property, state property.
And once we built that one and people realized how beneficial
they were...
Jackie Sergent: People are very much in favor of greenways
if they are over there, but not if they have a concern
that they are coming in their backyard.
But as we move forward
and more and more trails get on the ground,
people, I think, will see what the outcome is of the trail
and be less and less worried that something negative is going
to come to their neighborhood.
Mark Kaplan: The town of Butner and the county of Granville County
had contacted us about putting the greenway through our property.
And since I was aware of how well the greenways worked
in my town, I thought that it would be a good thing
for the company to support them.
Now that it's been open for a few months,
it really surprises all of us how often people use it and how
popular it's become, even in a short period of time.
Vickey: All of our employees have an opportunity now
for a good, clean place to walk that you don't have to worry
about snakes or mud.
It's a nice area.
Jackie Sergent: We had a wide variety of stakeholders.
It was called the Health Promotion Work Group at that time.
We had members from the faith community;
we had members from various municipalities
and throughout the county.
Brian Alligood: The school system,
the health system, the health department,
lots of people involved.
Melissa Hodges: The greenways in Butner really got started as
part of the Granville County Master Plan.
And once we incorporated, Granville County approached us
with some grant opportunities
that as a local government we could pursue.
Butner doesn't have a lot of sidewalks.
There is, I would say, eight to ten blocks of sidewalk
within the entire town.
Originally Butner was—
originally Camp Butner World War II training camp.
And there were a lot of asphalt sidewalks and property owners
wanted them removed.
Now property owners want them back,
so that's been a big initiative
is connecting to the existing sidewalks.
I thought the greenways were excellent.
I am thrilled because greenways really,
they're more than just one component.
There are so many things to greenways.
They help with transportation which improves air quality
as well as reducing congestion on the roadways.
They provide recreation.
But then they also have a health benefit.
Leonard Peace: I saw the greenway initiative as a good way for
school and community to come together for a good cause.
Now that the school trail is in operation between
the Butner Stem Middle School and the Butner Stem Elementary School,
I think it's a great idea.
We have people using it and there has been no negative
responses from anyone since it's been in operation.
Jackie Sergent: After learning more about The Community Guide
and what it can bring to bear on impacts and outcomes,
the Board of Health...
we now, the Granville Vance District Health Department
does have a policy that says that we should look to
The Community Guide as our basis before we move forward.
Why wouldn't we want to use The Community Guide
as our primary resource?
It's the first place you look to see:
what are the ideas that work?
what is recommended?
It seems so obvious that we would want to see what has
already been proven to make a difference.
We want to use evidence-based practices.
Look to a resource that is objective and has good
information, and see if there's something in there that you can
take away and apply to your own jurisdiction.
I feel so lucky that I knew about The Community Guide
when I first started this work
because I am not sure that we would be where we are today
with progress with greenways in Granville County
had I not gotten the information from The Community Guide
about the value of creating and increasing access to places
to be physically active.
Narrator: Granville County in North Carolina
used the following Task Force findings and recommendations
on promoting physical activity:
• Creation of or enhanced access to places for physical activity
combined with, informational outreach activities,
• Community-scale urban design and land use policies,
• Street-scale urban design and land use policies, and
• Transportation and travel policies and practices.
The Guide to Community Preventive Services is an
essential resource for people who want to know what works
in public health.
It provides evidence-based findings and recommendations
from the Community Preventive Services Task Force about
community preventive services, programs,
and policies to improve health.
The Task Force is an independent, nonfederal,
unpaid group of public health and prevention experts.
It bases its findings and recommendations
on systematic reviews of the scientific literature.
With oversight from the Task Force, scientists and subject matter experts
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
conduct these reviews in collaboration with a wide range
of government, academic, policy, and practice-based partners.
Find out what works to promote health and safety
in your community.
The Community Guide includes:
• Evidence-based Task Force findings and recommendations
• Systematic review methods
• Interventions on more than 20 public health topic areas
• Information on how to use The Community Guide
• And more!
You can also sign up to get e-mail notices
when new information of interest to you is posted.
Visit The Community Guide website at
www.thecommunityguide.org.