City Futures Research Centre Arts, Design and Architecture

South Western Sydney Local Health District

Organisation name South Western Sydney Local Health District
Organisation type Governmental organisation
Organisation fields
  • Health
  • Physical activity / Exercise / Sport
  • Food / Nutrition
  • Urban / town planning
Description This organisation works collaboratively with other agencies, government departments, clinical services and communities to provide health promotion services and develop and advocate for health policies.
Commenced Work Five to ten years ago
Type(s) of HBE Activity
  • Policy development
  • Advocacy for healthy built environments
  • Research to better understand healthy built environments
  • Translating research into policy
  • Capacity building / staff training
  • Information resource
  • Provision of physical infrastructure
  • Workplace initiative (e.g. end of trip facilities)
Key objectives of HBE activities
  • To improve people's physical health
  • To increase people's physical activity level
  • To strengthen social capital
  • To reduce pollution from traffic
  • To promote active transport (walking, cycling, public transport)
  • To improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists
The organisation addresses the following areas of work in relation to getting people active
  • Promoting walking for daily travel / recreation
  • Promoting cycling for daily travel / recreation
  • Promoting use of public transportation for daily travel
  • Providing public open space
  • Improving safety from traffic for pedestrians and cyclists
  • Improving connectivity
The organisation addresses the following areas of work in relation to strengthening and connecting communities
  • Input into planning processes that advocate for and strengthen social connectivity
  • Influencing the location of facilities within a community to ensure they are convenient, central and clustered with other facilities
  • Promoting interaction in public spaces including gardens, town squares, parks and lively streetscapes
  • Encouraging supportive social networks within neighbourhoods and participation in decision-making
The organisation addresses the following areas of work in relation to providing access to healthy food
  • Advocating/supporting facilities (e.g. water fountains, community gardens, fresh food markets and allotments, breastfeeding locations etc.)
  • Supporting local food production (e.g., through zoning and land use regulation)
  • Advocating for public transport measures that support access to healthy food (e.g. schedules and timetables and routes, space to store parcels en route, shopping shuttles, home delivery services and/or support for local corner shops and convenience stores)
The organisation takes part in the following specific HBE activities Participation in active travel project.
Target Population
  • General population
  • Adults
Geographic Focus of HBE activities
  • Urban areas
Website http://www.swslhd.nsw.gov.au/