Active Living
DEFINITION/DESCRIPTION
An active lifestyle is one that integrates physical activity on a daily basis, such as a walk in a park, organized league play, or whatever gets your heart rate up. Physical activity improves overall health through cardio-respiratory and muscular fitness while lowering the risk of adverse outcomes such as obesity, early death, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Open, green spaces offer a place for recreational opportunities for city dwellers. And, the use of active transportation, such as biking and walking, promotes health while reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emission. Recreation is a means of engaging people and their communities in lifelong healthy pursuits whether it occur outdoors or at a community center.
CURRENT STATUS
The City is home to 263 parks covering 4,600 acres. There are over 25 miles of public trails, 21 pools, 3 skateboard parks, 12 city farms 3 dog parks, 121 playgrounds, 55 recreation centers, 116 basketball courts as well as 2.8 million trees. The City operates 38 biking, boating, hiking, camping, and trail programs that provides over 13,000 outdoor recreation experiences.
EQUITY INDICATORS
The City through the Department of Recreation and Parks provides a wide variety of services and programming attractive to all residents with a wide selection of ability levels. Additionally, there is a pricing model adopted to maintain affordable opportunities for all residents. Also, the City works with schools and partners to obtain grant funding to provide free programming and free family passes to participants of youth programming However, there are residents who are not able of taking advantage of the affordable, relevant indoor or outdoor recreation programming due to a lack of transportation and other factors.
STRATEGIES
1. Provide safe, well-maintained recreation space and programming within a ¼ mile of all residents and ensure safe walking and biking access.
Action 1 - Enable joint use of school-based recreation facilities during non-school hours.
Action 2 - Enact Complete Streets to provide traffic calming measures to encourage walking and bicycling, particularly for youth access.
Action 3 - Create a trail network to create a healthy, safe urban ecosystem. Link existing Baltimore City trails and parks to create a 35-mile loop connecting the city’s diverse neighborhoods with downtown.
2. Ensure Recreation Center and other programs are in alignment with neighborhood interests by engaging residents.
Action 1 - Conduct a listening tour of neighborhoods to learn what types of recreation residents would like at their local center and ensure that families feel comfortable and involved and their programming needs are offered.
Action 2 – Partner with schools, libraries, police, private recreation facilities to expand fitness and wellness programs.
Action 3 – Provide jobs and job training in the recreation field and hire teens and young adults.
3. Assess Community level of engagement across all targeted areas, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Action 1 - Adopt a contact/data management system to record all participation.
Action 2 - Create focus groups from the listening tours with various ages and interests.
Action 3 – Develop marketing and outreach efforts to encourage broader public participation of programs, and ultimately, public support. Create Facebook pages/twitter accounts that are community based.
METRICS FOR SUCCESS
Strategy 1: Quantitative ______ by ______ in _________
Strategy 2: Quantitative ______ by ______ in _________
Strategy 3: Quantitative ______ by ______ in _________
Qualitative Improve ______ through ________