On March 21, CHLPI met with partners in Franklin County, Massachusetts, to promote community use of public and private buildings and grounds for physical recreation. In a Community Use Training with a special focus on libraries and Councils on Aging, CHLPI addressed opportunities for developing new community use initiatives and described special legal protections against liability for property-owners that open spaces to the general public free of charge. “Finding space for people to exercise in Franklin County is challenging because it’s so rural,” noted one of the training participants. “To get to a gym, they may have to drive 45 minutes or more. If we opened up the library in town in the evenings, it would be much easier.”
To assist community members in opening up new spaces for exercise and recreation, CHLPI created the Massachusetts Community Use Toolkit: Helping Kids and Communities Be Healthy and Active. Launched at the Franklin County training, the Toolkit is a step-by-step guide to creating and implementing community use initiatives, from identifying appropriate spaces to managing risk to finding funds. It contains sample documents, such as checklists, budgets, and Community Use Agreement templates, that readers can adapt to the unique needs and circumstances of their own towns and neighborhoods. Over the next year, CHLPI will continue to promote community use through dissemination of the Toolkit and provision of targeted technical assistance throughout Massachusetts.
Download the publication:
Complete Toolkit: Massachusetts Community Use Toolkit: Helping Kids and Communities Be Healthy and Active
Individual sections of the Toolkit for easy printing:
Site Visit Checklist
Sample Community Use Timeline
Sample Community Use Budget
Model Community Use Agreement
Community Use of Schools Checklist
Community Use Agreement Checklist
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