Reports & Presentations

 

Fostering Youth-Enabling Environments: A Participatory Affordance-Capability Framework for the Development and Use of Youth-Engaged Environmental Assessments

Abstract: This paper proposes a new conceptual approach to the development and utilization of youth-led environmental assessments to inform the planning of youth-enabling environments. Interdisciplinary research has established the influential effects of the physical environment on children and adolescents’ well-being and development, yet there is a gap in our understanding of how to create everyday environments for youth that speak to their needs and interests and provide opportunities for them to flourish. Engaging youth through participatory action research to both develop and conduct environmental assessments can have positive implications for youth empowerment and well-being while also altering research and planning practices to effectively integrate youth voice. The proposed approach integrates elements from affordance theory, the Capability Approach, and positive youth development within a youth participatory action research framework to create a process that encourages capability formation, fosters positive development, and improves our understanding of what constitutes a youth-enabling environment.

Paving the Way for Outdoor Play: Examining Socio-Environmental Barriers to Community-Based Outdoor Play

Abstract: Outdoor play and independent, neighborhood activity, both linked with healthy childhood development, have declined dramatically among Western children in recent decades. This study examines how social, cultural and environmental factors may be hindering children’s outdoor and community-based play. A comprehensive survey was completed by 826 children (aged 10–13 years) and their parents from 12 schools (four each urban, suburban and rural) from a large county in Ontario, Canada. Five multilevel regression models, controlling for any school clustering effect, examined associations between outdoor play time per week and variable sets representing five prevalent factors cited in the literature as influencing children’s outdoor play (OP). Models predicted that younger children and boys were more likely to spend time playing outdoors; involvement in organized physical activities, other children nearby to play with, higher perception of benefits of outdoor play, and higher parental perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion also predicted more time in outdoor play. Time outdoors was less likely among children not allowed to play beyond home without supervision, felt they were ‘too busy’ with screen-based activities, and who reported higher fears related to playing outdoors. Study findings have important implications for targeting environmental, cultural and policy changes to foster child-friendly communities which effectively support healthy outdoor play.

Evaluation of a pediatric rooftop garden using the healthcare garden evaluation toolkit (M.S. Thesis)

Abstract: The evaluation of gardens in healthcare facilities through post-occupancy evaluations (POE) is essential for research and evidence-based design. Access to green spaces in healthcare facilities has been shown to improve physical, emotional, and mental outcomes for patients, visitors, and staff, and can be considered part of a holistic approach to health. By applying systematic, valid methods to assess these spaces, we can standardize research into the design of gardens and other natural spaces in healthcare facilities. Results from this, and similar garden evaluations can also be used as guides for future design and research into the policy, programming, and design to optimize user health and well-being outcomes. This study adapted the Healthcare Garden Evaluation Toolkit (H-GET) for pediatric use in order to evaluate a rooftop garden at a pediatric healthcare facility. The H-GET is a mixed methods toolkit consisting of a garden audit tool (GATE), behavior mapping observation, staff survey, and stakeholder interviews, and allows for the collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Results of this evaluation suggested that high garden quality, as measured by the GATE audit and staff surveys, is related to high garden usage, and staff believe that the garden was good for mental and physical health. Barriers to use included visibility, accessibility, and insufficient shading and seating. Recommendations for design, policy, and programming in the gardens highlight opportunities for improvements in this and future gardens at healthcare facilities to increase usage and proliferate the multitude of benefits that access to nature can provide.

PRESENTATIONS

  • Youh-Led Assessments of Outdoor Community Spaces

  • Youth-Enabling Community Environments: A Preliminary Toolkit for Engaging Youth in the Assessment and Design of Inclusive Outdoor Community Spaces

  • Fostering Youth-Enabling Environments: A Participatory Affordance-Capability Framework for the Development and Use of Youth-Engaged Environmental Assessments

  • Rethinking environmental assessments: What youth-identified priorities can tell us about the future of designing youth-friendly spaces

  • A Novel, Participatory Approach to Assessing Youth Leisure Environments Through an Affordance-Capability Approach Framework

  • Joint Presentation with Dr. Naomi Sachs: The Healthcare Garden Evaluation Toolkit; Pediatric Rooftop Hospital

  • Presenting Author: Evaluation of a Pediatric Rooftop Garden Using the Healthcare Garden Evaluation Toolkit (H-GET)

  • Human Wildlife Conflict: Factors and Sustainable Solutions in the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem in Northern Tanzania

  • Guest lecturer, Cornell University

    Introduction to Environmental Psychology; Design & Sustainability; Research Methods in Human-Environment Relations; Research Methods in Landscape Architecture; Designing Age-Friendly Environments; Research Methods in Environmental Psychology

    Guest lecturer, University of California, Davis

    Environment & Behavior