Urban farmers seeking healthier communities in Houston’s East End and beyond
URBAN EDGE : October 25, 2023
Finca Tres Robles, an urban farm in Houston’s East End established by the Small Places organization in 2014, is in a state of transition. It initially combined agriculture, community engagement and sustainability. As it moves into its second iteration, it will continue that work with hopes of expanding its reach.
Could parks be a panacea for what ails Houston? Here’s what the research says
URBAN EDGE : October 19, 2023
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, urban parks and greenspace provided welcome respite and recreation when people had to spend a lot of time indoors. That renewed appreciation for parks confirmed what many researchers have been pointing out for decades: They provide cities huge benefits for public health, the environment and the economy.
Why Houston is taking steps to elevate children’s rights in City Hall
URBAN EDGE : October 16, 2023
After three years of researching, planning and implementing a commitment to its children, the city of Houston is the first in the U.S. to be recognized as a UNICEF Child Friendly City. With this milestone and the acknowledgement of children’s needs and voices, Houston is actively investing in its future — and it is an investment all cities should undertake.
With community action plan, Settegast takes next step toward lasting change
URBAN EDGE : August 14, 2023
Following a three-phase, 18-month project, Harris County Public Health has released a community action plan for Settegast, a historically Black neighborhood in northeast Houston with the lowest life expectancy in Harris County, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project.
With new youth facility, Harris Center takes community-based approach to avoid recidivism
URBAN EDGE : June 21, 2023
One of the central aspirations of The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is to reduce the footprint of criminal justice in the lives of people with mental health concerns. After providing services to over 90,000 individuals in 2022, it recently opened a facility specifically dedicated to juveniles between the ages of 13-17 with the launch of its Youth Diversion Center.
Physical activity is a magic bullet for our health. So what’s holding us back?
URBAN EDGE : June 5, 2023
Regular physical activity may be the closest thing we have to a “magic bullet” to combat the obesity epidemic and alarmingly high rates of cardiovascular disease. Physical activity offers dramatic benefits for individuals but it also has the potential to knit together the social fabric of our communities, making us healthier physically and mentally. And it is free. So, what’s holding us back? As it turns out, something as easy as a safe walk around the neighborhood is out of reach for too many communities.
Lone scarred state: Texas must contend with outsized death toll from COVID-19 and anti-vaccine attitudes
URBAN EDGE : November 14, 2022
The United States of America leads all high-income nations in COVID-19 deaths, even though as a nation it had the greatest access to antiviral vaccines and therapeutics. To understand this disconnect, we can look to the COVID-19 deaths and disability in the state of Texas. Because of COVID-19, Texas is enduring one of the greatest human tragedies in its 186-year history. It did not have to be this way.
Accountability, capacity building and collaboration key to a healthier Settegast
URBAN EDGE : October 25, 2022
Settegast’s estimated life expectancy of 65.7 years, more than 20 years lower than the highest expectancies in Clear Lake and River Oaks, makes it among the most vulnerable communities in our area. While residents of the historically Black neighborhood in northeast Houston have called out inequities over the course of several decades, those concerns have mostly gone unheeded. But there is hope that change is coming.
Thanks to Justice40, Port Houston investments will bring long overdue relief to Pleasantville
URBAN EDGE : October 12, 2022
My wife and I couldn’t believe it. When we retired and moved back home to Houston’s historically Black Pleasantville, just east of downtown, we smelled the unmistakable odor of the petrochemical plants and saw the close-knit community where we’d grown up surrounded by noisy freeways. The apartments where friends of mine lived had been replaced by warehouses swarming with old diesel trucks.
Houston public health could benefit from a more collaborative governance structure
URBAN EDGE : January 19, 2022
When COVID-19 struck in early 2020, public health experts in Houston swung into action. But, unlike in other major Texas cities, two different agencies swung into action: the City of Houston Health Department and the Harris County Public Health Department. Although they worked well together in a crisis, the pandemic gave new currency to the question of how public services are delivered in the Houston area.