1,000 Friends of New Mexico is sponsoring an off-campus forum tonight about the effects of urbanization on health and how the community can help.
The forum, is scheduled to address how people can make improvements through legislation, land use planning and community design, and will be at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, 2401 12th St. from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The event is free and refreshments will be served.
Melinda Smith, executive director of 1,000 Friends of New Mexico, will facilitate the forum. The group is a nonprofit, growth-management advocacy organization that aims to promote planning for future growth in the state.
The forum will address what the group calls a current disconnection between land-use planning and public-health policies in the Albuquerque area, while taking into consideration the physical activity of citizens.
Sarah Kotchian, assistant professor at UNM's Institute of Public Health, will represent the University at the forum. She also is an adviser to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said her speech will deal with several of the center's issues.
Kotchian said that urbanization negatively affects public health in many ways.
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"It creates air pollution, a lack of physical activity for example due to the comfort of cars, it creates a barrier within communities - people are unlikely to know one another within a community, and it influences the way we define nature," she said.
Researchers from the center released a report last year suggesting that the built environment and current land-use practices negatively affect public health, according to a recent 1,000 Friends statement. The report encouraged policymakers to be aware of the health effects of the decisions they make, the statement said.
"The report gives recommendation to the fact that we need to have a dialogue across sectors," she said. "We need developers, planners, transportation experts, and public health experts. This is the beginning of a dialogue, but it is certainly not the end."
Kotchian said she expects some provocative discussion from the forum and advice for the audience. She said she hopes that people will be inspired to think about what connections need to be taken to continue the dialogue.
Other scheduled speakers include Pat Baca, director of the Center of Injury Prevention, and Richard Brusuelas of the Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department.
