Heal Cities

The Healthy Eating Active Living Cities Campaign celebrates all municipal policies that make California cities places where residents, employees and visitors can be physically active and have access to nutritious foods.

The HEAL Cities Campaign considers a policy to be a written and adopted statement of a city’s intent accompanied by guidelines, standards and/or specific action steps.

 

Levels of HEAL Cities

The HEAL Cities Campaign recognizes that cities are in different stages of policy adoption and implementation. Therefore, it recognizes three levels of HEAL Cities.

 

Eager —	These HEAL Cities have passed at least one HEAL Cities Campaign policy in at least one of the Campaign areas land use; healthy food; employee wellness (e.g., HEAL resolution with specific action steps and a timeline; language in general plan; zoning ordinances governing street design or community gardens; joint use of recreational facilities; employee wellness policy).
Active —	These HEAL cities have adopted at least 2 HEAL Cities Campaign policies and have at least 1 walkable, bikable neighborhood with access to healthy food within a reasonable distance of residential areas.
Fit —	These are walkable, bikable cities with policies to support healthy food access in all neighborhoods and municipal facilities. They address healthy eating and active living within their general plan, zoning ordinances and their infrastructure, and have written implementation strategies with identified partners. They have an employee wellness policy in place with implementation standards.

 

 

Recognizing HEAL Cities

Cities that submit their adopted healthy eating active living policies to the Campaign can benefit from the Campaign’s recognition program in the following ways.

Eager HEAL Cities will receive the following:

1.	A color version of the HEAL Cities Campaign logo for posting on their website
2.	A campaign certificate
3.	Recognition in on the HEAL Cities Campaign website
4.	Free publicity from the campaign through a tailored press release distributed to local media outlets and a notice to the League of California Cities for use in their publications

 

Active HEAL Cities will receive the following benefits:

1.	A color version of the HEAL Cities Campaign logo for posting on their website
2.	A campaign certificate
3.	Recognition on the HEAL Cities Campaign website
4.	Free publicity from the campaign through a tailored press release distributed to local media outlets and a notice to the League of California Cities for use in their publications
5.	Recognition at the HEAL Cities Campaign-hosted reception at the League of California Cities Annual Conference
6.	Eligibility to purchase Campaign promotional materials at cost

 

Fit HEAL Cities will receive all of the benefits described above plus the following:

1.	All of the above and a presentation of a plaque with the HEAL Cities Campaign logo at a City Council meeting.
2.	A paid advertisement in Western Cities declaring it a Fit HEAL City

 

Cities can move toward becoming a Healthy Eating Active Living City by taking the steps outlined in the Campaign’s fact sheet, “Get Moving!”

 

Cities can also submit their policies by contacting the Campaign