An Exploration of Language, Policies, and Collaborative Actions by Planning and Public Health Professionals to Guide Active Community Design

Abstract

The objective of this research project was to gain a better understanding of the language, policies and collaborative actions undertaken by planning and public health professionals that are relevant to the design of active communities. The overarching aim of this research was to develop resources to facilitate the collaborative efforts of planners and public health professionals working together to create active communities. To this end, three studies were undertaken. In the first study, publicly available documents, websites, and published reports from five Government of Ontario ministries were reviewed. The review produced 136 terms for inclusion in a joint glossary of terms for planners and public health professionals. In the second study legislation/strategies from the same five government ministries were reviewed and interviews were conducted with 10 government policy-makers to identify priorities, challenges and inter-sectoral collaboration to enhance the design of active communities. This process produced a policy inventory of 39 Ontario laws/strategies that govern planners and public heath professionals working to enhance the design of active communities and identified challenges related to achieving inter-ministry collaboration and coordination towards a provincial active communities’ agenda. The third study recruited planners and public health professionals working in the province of Ontario to participate in a concept mapping process to identify ways they currently work together to enhance the design of active communities. This process generated 72 actions that represent collaborative efforts planners and public health professionals engage in when designing active communities. These actions were then organized by importance and feasibility, resulting in the development of a coordinated action framework that features four planning actions for planners, nineteen proximal and six distal coordinated actions for planners and public health professionals and six public health actions for public health professionals. Collectively, results from these three studies contribute to our understanding of the language, policies, and collaborative actions employed by planning and public health professionals that are relevant to the design of active communities. The resources developed from this project are intended to support and facilitate the collaborative efforts of planners and public health professionals working to create active communities.