The HEAL Library: Sharing Healthy Eating and Active Living Resources

LiveWell Colorado understands that tackling our state’s obesity epidemic calls for true collaboration, commitment and cooperation. A huge part of this means sharing existing healthy eating and active living (HEAL) information and resources to help our communities and partners in their current and future endeavors.

Without a doubt, there is a wealth of HEAL information out there already; however, it is not always so easy to track down the most pertinent examples, case studies or best practices – especially when it comes to policy. Well, that’s about to change…

I am pleased to announce that LiveWell Colorado, with the support of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and our LiveWell Colorado Communities, developed and launched the HEAL Library – a searchable, online collection of codes, ordinances, resolutions, policies and other tools to help communities create environments that support access to healthy eating and active living. The HEAL Library is designed to be an easily accessible tool that enables community leaders, advocates, agency staff and local elected officials to search for content on a specific topic relevant to their community.

Are you with a city interested in allowing urban agriculture or a Special District looking to develop a Complete Streets policy? If so, the HEAL Library can provide you with pertinent examples to help inform and shape your initiatives.

With emphasis on the most relevant and innovative examples for promoting HEAL, the Library provides model language for policy and regulatory action at the local or regional level, with a primary focus on Colorado communities and a secondary focus on similar states and other leading national examples.

I encourage you to learn more about the HEAL Library and increase its impact by doing the following:

• Participate in our upcoming HEAL Library webinar on Wednesday, January 18 to better understand how this resource may be of help to you and your organization. A copy of the webinar recording will also be available on our website. 
  
  
• Visit the HEAL Library (www.livewellcolorado.org/heallibrary) and begin searching the database to familiarize yourself with its numerous resources and capabilities.
  
  
• Contribute to the HEAL Library, which currently contains 65 examples of codes, ordinances, resolutions and policies. With your help, we hope to continue to grow and evolve this Library to put more tools, ideas, and inspiration for local implementation into the hands of Colorado communities.
  
  
• Provide feedback on the HEAL Library. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the Library – how you plan to use it, how it could be improved, and how we can further spread the word.

We look forward to your involvement in this terrific new resource!