Evaluation of the Foundation's Active Living by Design program

The Foundation's Active Living by Design (ALD) program was designed to establish and evaluate innovative approaches that support active living. ALD is a five-year effort to increase physical activity in 25 communities by changing the built environment through community efforts, public policies and communications strategies. Many of the program's efforts are specific to children, while others apply to all family members regardless of age. The purpose of this project is to develop between four and eight case studies of the social, economic and political conditions affecting the funded communities' success in changing the built environment. This project is being carried out in conjunction with two other activities to gain a comprehensive evaluation of Active Living by Design. The two other efforts are studies of the impact on physical activity at the most advanced sites (commissioned by Active Living Research), and a grant that will permit environmental audits of all 25 grantee communities to assess activity friendliness. Together, these three efforts will assist the Foundation to assess the feasibility of changing physical activity through the built environment, informing the Foundation's work in this area. The project deliverables are at least four case studies for use in communicating the results of Active Living by Design. This project will be considered successful if it clearly conveys the social, economic and political factors that affected grantees' abilities to change the built environment.