ACTIVE Louisville

In November, 2003, Mayor Jerry Abramson announced that Louisville Metro and the Louisville Metro Housing Authority received a $200,000 grant to support ACTIVE Louisville, a local partnership developed to increase active living and encourage healthier lifestyles. The new initiative is part of Active Living by Design, a national program established to create, enhance and promote environments that make it safe and convenient for people to be more physically active. Funding for the project is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

With the five-year $200,000 grant, the ACTIVE Louisville program focused on the area affected by the Clarksdale HOPE VI revitalization, and includes residents living within and around the Clarksdale site and the Shelby Park, Smoketown and Phoenix Hill neighborhoods. It also targeted people working in or ìpassing throughî the area, such as students, employees and church members. ACTIVE Louisville also received an additional $120,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to develop new initiatives that encourage healthy eating.

The ACTIVE Louisville program:

• incorporated active living principles into the physical development projects and other neighborhood improvements;

• provided programming and educational opportunities to promote healthier lifestyles; and

• linked leaders in separate disciplines, such as community design, transportation planning, land use, architecture and recreational development into a cohesive planning process with the long term goal of institutionalizing this approach to planning throughout the metro area.

The work of Active Louisville is being continued by the Louisville Metro Dept. of Public Health and Wellness using a Healthy Kids Healthy Communities grant, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Norton Foundation also contributed funds to the Presbyterian Community Center (PCC) to continue educational programming for the children at the Sr. Peter Claver Community Garden.