Professional Practice
Joint Call to Action to Promote Healthy Communities
Where we live, work and play can directly impact our physical and mental health. The Joint Call to Action to Promote Healthy Communities (JCTA) brings together 450,000 professionals who recognize that the built environment — the way a community is designed and built from its buildings and public spaces to how we travel between communities — is a key determinant of health. Working together will create new momentum towards the common objective of creating and sustaining healthy buildings and spaces.
CONVERSATION GUIDES
The eight member organizations of the JCTA have published ten conversation guides to highlight successful cross-disciplinary collaborations for healthy, equitable communities. Each guide examines the successes and challenges of one case study and includes conversational questions any design or planning professional can use to kick-start collaboration in their community.
“Landscape architects are essential to designing healthy, safe, and accessible public spaces. Our work in the built and natural environments promotes active lifestyles and healthy communities,” says ASLA President Wendy Miller, FASLA. “These guides show how many stakeholders, including landscape architects, can address growing health challenges and inequities by working together.”
HOW TO TAKE ACTION:
- Start the conversation! Invite a public health colleague or allied professional to discuss health projects in your community.
- Review additional ASLA Health and Well-being practice guides
- Check out ASLA Online Learning for courses on healthy, equitable communities
- Participate in the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture to learn about how your peers are already taking action to create healthy communities.
- Use the ASLA iAdvocate Network to urge your legislators to pass policies that promote healthy, safe, and equitable communities, including active transportation, community and national parks, nature-based stormwater management and environmental justice legislation.
- Let us know what you're working on! Use #JointCall4HealthyCommunities.
The JCTA aims to promote healthier, more equitable communities by empowering our members to make health a primary consideration in their practice and collaborate across built environment and health professions.
The JCTA specifically addresses four key points:
- Creating and fostering partnerships that advance health;
- Building an understanding of health data and establishing measurable health objectives for plans and projects;
- Advancing policies, programs, and systems that promote community health, well-being and equity; and
- Communicating the importance of health.
Read the full Joint Call to Action.
The JCTA includes American Institute of Architects, American Planning Association, American Public Health Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Landscape Architects, National Recreation and Park Association, U.S. Green Building Council, Urban Land Institute.