Parks and green spaces encourage physical activity, improve social cohesion, boost mental health and more. Yet lack of access and availability, as well as racist practices like redlining and over-policing, mean not every community gets to take advantage of such benefits.
At a Tuesday APHA 2021 session on “Parks and Public Spaces: Working to Achieve Health Equity,” presenters shared how they work to increase park equity and how we can collaboratively work together to achieve health equity.
Among Black Americans, the influence of structural racism means inequitable access to nature and its many benefits, said Jennifer Roberts of with the University of Maryland. Born in Buffalo, New York, Roberts said her mother remembers loving her walks in Humboldt Park, which was connected to Delaware Park by a beautiful tree-lined boulevard in Buffalo’s predominantly Black East Side community. Read more.