Key components of a statewide Healthy Communities effort.

The Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities movement is in its second decade. Examples of both successful and unsuccessful Healthy Communities efforts can be found in large and small communities across the country. What are the key components of a successful effort? Movement leaders from California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina as well as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have contributed their collective experience to identifying the key components of a statewide Healthy Communities effort. Assessing the degree to which a state has these key components in place can help the state take steps to assure support for Healthy Communities.

The Community Tool Box: a Web-based resource for building healthier communities.

Building healthier cities and communities requires an array of community-building skills that are not always taught in formal education. The Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ukans.edu) is an Internet-based resource for practical, comprehensive, accessible, and user-friendly information on community-building, which both professionals and ordinary citizens can use in everyday practice. It connects people, ideas, and resources, offering more than 200 how-to sections and more than 5,000 pages of text.