Improved health isn’t the only reason to invest in activity-friendly communities—doing so can also improve safety, social connectedness, air quality, and local economies.1 The National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) has created a growing collection of resources and research to help public health practitioners, decision makers, and community members make the business case for improving the built environment.
Create Thriving, Activity-Friendly Communities
Making the case for investments in activity-friendly communities
What are activity-friendly communities?
Places connected by routes such as sidewalks and trails to everyday destinations such as grocery stores and parks
Explore how this can happen in your community

Economic Indicators Library
You can decide which economic indicators to prioritize based on your community’s most pressing local issues and needs, and your community’s vision for the future.
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Easier than you think
There are many great ways to start the conversation around activity-friendly communities. These talking points and questions will help you be ready for issues that may arise when discussing priorities with local decision makers and community members. Click here to download a PDF of the discussion points.
Talking about economic benefits of activity-friendly communities
Start the conversation by asking...
- How would a more activity-friendly community be good for us and our neighbors?
- What are some examples of activity-friendly places or infrastructure in our community?
- What are some untapped opportunities and possibilities for activity-friendly plans or development in our community?
- What could the future version of our community look like?
- What areas and who in our community would benefit most from more places to safely walk, bike, run, or roll?
Activity-friendly communities create economic opportunities.
Economic opportunities help attract employees, customers, and patronswho want to live and work near jobs, businesses, and services that are convenient and easy to access.
People in thriving communities live longer and report better health, contributing to lower health care costs and increased productivity for employers.
When communities make it easy and convenient to walk, bike, and roll to ample job opportunities, businesses, and services, they create shared economic prosperity, which helps people feel connected and promotes the community’s overall health and economy.