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7 <br />ORANGE COUNTY/TJCOG ACTIVE SENIORS PROJECT <br />PAN COMMUNITY GRANTS PROGRAM <br />1. Project Description <br />A. The key recommendations that this project will address from the N C. Blaeprint and <br />Moving Our Children Toward a Healtha~ Weight include: <br />i. Increasing opportunities for physical activity by fostering supportive policies and <br />environments. <br />a. Increasing the numbei of facilities and/or environments that promote plrysical <br />activity. <br />b. Increasing the number of policies, practices, and incentives to promote <br />physical activity. <br />ii. Providing more community-based opportunities for leisure-time/recreational <br />physical activity for all children and youth. <br />iii. Creating an environment that makes active lifestyles the norm rather than the <br />exception, <br />iv. By doing # i, this project will help increase public awareness of the importance of <br />physical activity and the need for supportive policies and environments. <br />B. The specif c target population is senior citizens and other neighborhood residents, <br />including children., <br />C. This project will bring together public health educators, land use planners, and senior <br />services professionals to work with senior citizens and other local residents to <br />promote physical activity in the neighborhood surrounding a planned new Orange <br />County Senior Center, an existing human services center, and an existing community <br />park. <br />Orange County is in the early stages of plamring a new senior center in Chapel Hill. <br />The project site is close to a human services center, a community park, a future <br />planned greenway, retail development, several churches, residential neighborhoods, <br />and other potential destinations, but there are a number of obstacles that currently <br />inhibit safe travel to these places on foot or by bike. This project will organize senior <br />citizens and other neighborhood stakeholders to systematically identify these <br />obstacles and reconmiend solutions to improve the safety and quality of the local <br />pedestrian and bicycle network in order to help seniors and others be more physically <br />active. This is a unique opportunity to influence the site design of the senior center, <br />as well as improvements that can be made in the surrounding neighborhood. <br />