Links > Planning, Policy and Investing in Active Communities

This section links you to useful resources on this topic on external websites.

• Active Living Essentials: Rural Communities: This Active Living by Design website is focused on increasing physical activity through community design. This particular section focuses on rural communities.

• AdvantAge Initiative: This initiative outlines the elements of an elder-friendly community.

• ACE Communities: This Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA) initiative is designed to get more people, more active, more often.

• Age-Friendly Communities: This Public Health Agency of Canada webpage includes suggestions and a checklist to help make your community age-friendly.

• Community Decision-making Toolkit: The list of Decision-Making Tools below contains a variety of methods to help communities generate ideas, prioritize issues and weigh options. Simple to use, these tools can easily be adapted to fit the needs of your particular community requirements.

• Healthy Rural Communities: A Resource and Action Guide for North Carolina: This guidebook is a resource for community leaders of all kinds. The guidebook will help decision-makers make tough, complex (and smart) growth and development decisions.

• International Charter for Walking: This charter gives communities the chance to encourage decision-makers to formally commit to creating a community that encourages people to be active. Use it as is or as a guideline for your work.

• Leadership for Healthy Communities: This American organization supports local policy-makers in creating healthier communities. The eight-page guide, Increasing Active Living: A Guide for Policy Makers, is not specific to rural or older adults but is a very good resource for all decision-makers.

• Physical Activity Backgrounder for Decision-Makers: This backgrounder from the Alberta Centre for Active Living gives you information about the costs of physical inactivity and what community decision-makers can do to promote physical activity.

• Senior Friendly: This program helps communities, businesses and organizations provide services that meet the needs of the aging population.

• Workbook for Influencing Physical Activity Policy (Physical Activity Resource Centre): This workbook is for anyone venturing to create a physical activity policy within their community, school or workplace. It is suitable for all levels of experience or comfort with policy development.