It's not often that Louisiana gets recognized for doing anything healthy (which is a prime reason why LHCC exists), but thanks to Complete Streets in Southwest Louisiana, we are!
Hopefully, you read about the Complete Streets effort earlier in this blog. (And if you haven't, please go back and do it.) Thanks to the highly successful efforts of a whole group of partners, including LHCC, which contributed people, time and money in the effort, Southwest Louisiana passed a Complete Streets ordinance in an unanimous vote.
That's an amazing feat, and because of that, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) recently chose to highlight our effort here, as well as one in Indiana, by doing case studies on them. In addition, the NACDD invited people instrumental in making that change happen, to conduct a webinar. That meant LHCC State Chair Mack Giancola and LHCC Network Manager John O'Donnell got to tell a lot of other folks across the country how to get moving. (Hopefully you saw our posting about that webinar on our Facebook page, which is reminder to watch for other similar great opportunities there, including mini-grant announcements.)
Want to know more? Read the case study here or link to it through the LHCC Resources "Stories (News & Inspiration)." And while you're exploring our Resources, take a look at all of them. They include, for example, the National Complete Streets Coalition and The Community Guide, which has a list of evidence-based interventions, compiled by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Complete Streets is one of those interventions and also represents the type of Policy, Systems and Environmental (PSE) change which LHCC funds in its mini-grants. (Want to know more about PSE change? See the blog!) So read up, join us and let's make Louisiana healthy. And thanks to Southwest Louisiana for help leading the charge!