Bringing Gardens and Parks to a Neighborhood Near You!

The article features Q&A with Alina Bokde, the executive director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust:

"Our work is about bringing resources and creating viable neighborhood parks and community gardens where community members can work with the Land Trust to provide programs and engage in what we call 'stewardship activities' to help maintain the site. We do clean-up days, we do big volunteer days to rehab the park, and we also engage the community in developing the leadership capacity to address quality of life issues within the community."

"There's more and more research coming out showing that the built environment has a very direct relationship to public health outcomes. If you live in a community or neighborhood that doesn't have fresh foods, groceries, or community gardens, doesn't have parks, and doesn't have walkable streets and trees, you're more likely to live in a community with higher rates of obesity, higher rates of diabetes, and higher rates of mental depression. There is a direct correlation that we see with the built environment and public health."

Thanks to James Brasuell