News Releases from Region 09
Los Angeles, Calif. & Nogales Ariz. Receive EPA Assistance to Improve Health, Environment and Local Economy
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Los Angeles and Nogales are two of ten communities selected to participate in the Healthy Places for Healthy People technical assistance program. Healthy Places for Healthy People is a new initiative that helps communities leverage health care facilities to foster downtown revitalization and economic growth, improve health and protect the environment.
In many communities, health care facilities can be catalysts for economic development, while investment in existing neighborhoods can improve walkability, protect air and water quality, encourage cleanup and reuse of contaminated properties, and conserve open spaces and natural resources.
“Partnering with health care facilities allows the EPA to help communities invest in the populations they serve and address environmental factors affecting public health,” said Alexis Strauss, EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Incorporating environmentally friendly designs can improve public health and the environment.”
Through Healthy Places for Healthy People, a team of experts will help community members and health care facility partners develop strategies and an action plan to address persistent needs, such as better health, improved public safety, basic infrastructure, and jobs. Partner organizations include community health centers (including Federally Qualified Health Centers), nonprofit hospitals, and other health care facilities.
In Nogales, Mariposa Community Health Center (a Federally Qualified Health Center) will explore creating a downtown clinic location. As the health center incorporates health and wellness into their plans, they envision green and open spaces for walking and physical activity and more economic opportunities for new businesses to start downtown.
In Los Angeles, the nonprofit New Economics for Women will partner with the public charter school NEW Academy of Science and Arts and the Arroyo Vista Family Health Center (a Federally Qualified Health Center), in the Pico-Union/Westlake neighborhood. The collaboration will address blight, air quality and poverty, while also meeting the housing and health care needs of the community it serves.
EPA support for Healthy Places for Healthy People is provided through the Office of Sustainable Communities, which promotes locally led, community-driven solutions that protect human health and the environment and strengthen local economies.
For more information, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/healthy-places-healthy-people
Video on how planning assistance can help communities leverage health care facilities to support economic growth: Williamson, WV.
Map of Healthy Places for Healthy People communities: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-06/hp2_map2017.jpg
