Active Living Logan Square: joining together to create opportunities for physical activity.
BACKGROUND
The Active Living Logan Square target audience is the community of the southwest corner of Logan Square, an urban Chicago community of 84,466 residents, mostly Latinos. Through the Active Living by Design (ALbD) initiative, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association leveraged its 48 years of existence in the neighborhood to create opportunities and build partnerships.


METHODS
Activities addressed three primary goals: (1) enhance school environments and practices to support physical activity before, during, and after the school day; (2) encourage individuals and families to enjoy outdoor activities in their own communities; and (3) create safe, inviting places for activity that connect to surrounding communities. The partnership's participatory approach involved a variety of community stakeholders in developing and implementing affordable, accessible, culturally acceptable, and sustainable physical activities for children and their families.


RESULTS
The partnership successfully piloted Open Streets (temporary street closures) and advocated for development of the Bloomingdale Trail, an elevated rails-to-trails project. In schools, the partnership changed the culture at McAuliffe Elementary to support healthy behaviors through new policies, physical projects, and programs.


CONCLUSIONS
Vital components of the project's success included a full-time coordinator with strong community ties; time to build healthy relationships within the partnership and community; the use of culturally relevant strategies; and flexibility to welcome complementary opportunities.


CONCLUSIONS
The partnership intentionally did not produce a single community-recognized campaign; instead, it chose to use limited resources to promote tangible programs and projects that led to sustainable and replicable changes that promote physical activity.
Gomez-Feliciano
Lucy
L
Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Chicago IL 60618, USA. lucygomez@sbcglobal.ne
McCreary
Linda L
LL
Sadowsky
Rob
R
Peterson
Serena
S
Hernandez
Adolfo
A
McElmurry
Beverly J
BJ
Park
Chang Gi
CG
D001642:Bicycling; D002641:Chicago; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003710:Demography; D004779:Environment Design; D015444:Exercise; D005381:Financing, Organized / Q000458:organization & administration; D015438:Health Behavior; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016138:Walking