About
Creating or modifying environments to make it easier for people to walk or bike is a strategy that not only helps increase physical activity but can make our communities better places to live. The Guide to Community Preventive Services recommends community strategies to increase physical activity that are related to walkability—community-scale urban design, street-scale urban design, and improving access to places for physical activity (including providing maps and descriptive information). Creating active community environments requires participation among all sectors of communities. Through planning, policy, grassroots organizing, and advocacy communities can ensure people of all ages and abilities are able to benefit. We all have a role to play, learn more about what you can do to support community physical activity and health with Shape Your World tools and resources.
Shape Your World is a statewide resource for North Carolinians who are committed to creating safer, healthier and more active communities by changing the world around them, their “built environments”. The path to change is not always clear, so Shape Your World is a place to find the tools that make improving our communities an achievable goal. Click on the individual signposts and base to find resources, information, and tools regarding each recommended strategy for improving community physical activity.
Shape Your World supports the Active People, Healthy Nation: Creating an Active America, Together, a national initiative by CDC and its partners. The goal of of Active People, Healthy Nation is to save lives and protect health by helping 27 million Americans become more physically active. Increased physical activity can improve health, quality of life, and reduce healthcare costs. These improvements can help reduce the risk of at least 20 chronic diseases and conditions and provide effective treatment for many of these conditions.
To reach this goal of 27 million Americans, communities can implement evidence-based strategies to increase physical activity across sectors and settings.
