FOCUS AREAS

Environment

We all deserve to live, work, and play in places that advance our health, rather than challenge it.

We must work together to implement policies and plans that improve air and water quality for all communities, while also supporting physical activity, walkability, and active transportation.

Why Illinois

From the coast of Lake Michigan to the Shawnee National Forest, Illinois’s widely varied landscape affords many residents opportunities to walk, bike, swim, and otherwise enjoy the outdoors. Other people and communities—especially those hit hardest by housing and other systemic inequities—are dangerously close to pollution sources, traffic congestion, and other disproportionate risks to their health and safety.

Our Work

IPHI advances evidence-based strategies that can help government and systems-level partners safeguard our natural environment, protect people from climate change’s impacts, and center public health needs in the development and improvement of public spaces.

Environmental Justice

IPHI served as a technical assistance partner for grassroots environmental justice leaders and the City of Chicago for the first-ever Cumulative Impact Assessment, a citywide evaluation of how different communities experience environmental burdens and other health challenges.

One outcome of this partnership is the recently launched Chicago Air Sensor Network, the largest community-based air sensor network in the U.S. IPHI facilitated the network’s co-design and gathered community guidance for the placement of 277 air sensors across the city, which will provide hyperlocal data that will help partners improve the health of people most impacted by poor air quality.

State Plans and Policies

For the past several years, IPHI has received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support and expand the Illinois State Physical Activity and Nutrition (ISPAN) program. This initiative supports policies and planning efforts that promote physical activity across the state as well as in institutions like child care centers. IPHI is an advisor to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Walk, Bike, Roll Illinois plan.

Capacity Building in Local Communities

Another key facet of IPHI’s ISPAN work is Active People, Healthy Illinois—a statewide, systems-level effort to connect activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations. IPHI works with local communities to understand, adopt, and implement policies such as Safe Routes to School and comprehensive physical activity, bike, and pedestrian plans that support people of all abilities. We offer training and other support to make these plans a reality, from reaching out to the community to securing funding, and from pouring sidewalks to opening them up for residents to enjoy.