kstateCHI.org > Projects > Healthy, Sustainable Communities

Healthy, Sustainable Communities

(a long-term intended outcome, work group, and program)

The workgroup focusing on the long-term intended outcome (LTIO) of healthy, sustainable communities sees communities as place-based social systems. The group believes that the extent to which communities are healthy and sustainable are interrelated.

A community's ability to meet its residents' needs partly determines the health of its residents. The sustainability of a community, in turn, depends on the community's ability, over time, to meet the needs of their residents.

Attaining the LTIO of healthy, sustainable communities will require a systems approach, involving four, intertwined dimensions of communities.

• human dimension — is the community a place where residents can meet their needs?
• basic human needs for food, shelter, health, and safety are considered foremost
• higher-order needs, such as opportunities for learning, expression, entertainment, and recreation contribute to the residents' quality-of-life
• environmental dimension — does the community's natural, social/cultural and built environment make it easier for residents to meet their needs?
• economic dimension — does the community's local economy provide adequate and sustainable access to jobs and income, goods and services, and investments in people and resources?
• institutional dimension — is the community's institutional network well-organized, properly functioning, and effective in meeting residents' needs?

Community policies and practices can make it easier for people to create healthy social, economic, and physical environments. Research findings of K-State Research and Extension faculty are applied in the form of consulting. Faculty and staff are available to help communities improve conditions that will, in turn, lead to improved health outcomes.

Research has consistently shown that life span health stems from social, economic, and physical environments. Because of this, CHI strives to understand and promote the things that 4-H youth groups, schools, families, and communities can do to improve their environments.

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