Healthy Active Lents

It is a story we've heard before: a lower-income neighborhood increasingly challenged by drug activity; a neighborhood that has been underserved and, at times, ignored. Split in half by an eight-lane freeway, the Lents neighborhood in Portland has limited walking and biking infrastructure to support an active, thriving community. For many Lents residents, the local Springwater Corridor Trail was unknown. Running along the southern border of Lents, the multi-use trail was not being used by many in the community.

Portland's Active Living by Design (ALbD) partnership has been working in the community, collaborating with local nonprofit organizations, neighborhood schools, and government agencies to promote and recreate an active community environment in Lents. Now highlighted as a true neighborhood asset, the Springwater Corridor Trail has been used as a focal point for many of the project's activities. Through extensive outreach and collaboration, Portland ALbD has organized or assisted in the planting of hundreds of native trees and shrubs, incorporated active living concepts into numerous school lesson plans, and increased awareness about all the Springwater Corridor Trail has to offer.

The goal of this program is to promote active people in active neighborhoods

Accomplishments of the HAL program include:

- Organized and participated in various efforts to enhance and maintain the Springwater Corridor Trail in the Lents project area. Worked with students from Marshall High School, Kelly Elementary and the Wattles Boys and Girls Club to coordinate trash pickup days and plant hundreds of native plants along the trail.
- Received $61,000 to repave portions of the Springwater Corridor Trail and $16,000 to conduct a trailhead location and environmental site assessment study in the Lents project area.
- Received a grant from Active Living Research to develop a case study of active living advocacy in a two-year regional urban growth boundary expansion planning process.
- Collaborated with the City of Portland Office of Transportation to promote active transportation through the Travel Smart and Ten Toe Express programs, reaching thousands of households in north and southeast Portland.
- Served on technical teams for the Damascus/Boring Concept Plan, influencing the principles and goals of Damascus master planning to reflect active living concepts by creating more walkable and bikeable communities.
- Implemented youth gardening, food system, and healthy eating classes through an afterschool curriculum at a local Boys and Girls Club, and summer camps at a local urban farm.
- Coordinating the community-based Lents Food Group to organize a farmersí market in the Lents neighborhood.
- Secured additional funding to work with local residents and city agencies to make recommendations for amending Portlandís Comprehensive Plan to better support healthy food access.