High Point Walking for Health Project

High Point Walking for Health was designed to address the built environment’s impact on resident’s physical activity with the goal to improve social and environmental factors that are more conducive to moderate physical activity rates. Community-based organizations, residents, public health practitioners, university faculty and Seattle Public Housing staff facilitate this program.

The essential components of High Point Walking for Health program are designed with the residents’ goals as a main priority and consist of:
1. Community Action Teams: Youth and adult teams were responsible for community assessment, building social support and leading the High Point for walking intervention.
2. Community Assessment: The community assessment consisted of data collection through neighborhood interviews and surveys. The interview questions were designed to better understand the residents’ perceptions of their own physical activity as well as challenges and suggestions to increase physical activity.
3. Photo voice was another component used to better assess the needs of the community. Residents captured the structures and features they felt hindered or supported physical activity.
4. Stair Case Project: Lead by the community action teams, the stair case project restored a staircase previously covered by vegetation that blocked the walkway. The teams restored the staircase allowing residents to utilize the stairs but also access a creek at the bottom of the staircase.

To increase physical activity among residents of the in the High Point Seattle public housing area through improvement in the built environment.

The High Point Walking for Health program was evaluated through a community-cased participatory research study. Sixty residents participated and the study found that among program participants, self-reported walking activity increased from 65 to 109 minutes per day (p-value=0.001). Moreover, the proportion of participants who reported being at least moderately active for at least 150 minutes per week increased from 62% to 81% (p-value=0.018).” The study showed that general health in the community also improved with participants reporting “fewer days when physical health and mental health were not good.”