The economic burden of stroke in African Americans and Hispanics will be enormous over the next several decades. Further efforts to improve stroke prevention and treatment in these high stroke risk groups are necessary.

This paper discusses activist archives within the context of community archives and the practices of archiving activism. Interference Archive (IA), a volunteer-run independent archive in Brooklyn, New York, is presented as one example of an activist archive. We explain the manner in which IA functions as a transmovement and prefigurative ''free space'' under Francis Poletta's typology of movement spaces. Through this explanation, we illustrate how the structures of free spaces can help us understand the way activist archives forge connections between communities and the ways that they create new networks of solidarity through the archival process.

IntroductionLiveWell Greenville, a multi-organization community coalition, launched an initiative in 2011 to help afterschool programs promote environments that decrease the risk of obesity among children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to describe changes in nutrition and physical activity environments, policies, and practices among 37 afterschool programs after their participation in the LiveWell Greenville Afterschool Initiative.MethodsThe study used a nonexperimental, pre- and postsurvey design. The survey was based on the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care questionnaire and modified for afterschool settings. Items addressed sedentary time, physical activity time, availability of sugar-sweetened beverages, sweet and salty snack consumption, fruit consumption, staff behaviors, and policies that support nutrition and physical activity practices. The self-assessment survey was completed by an afterschool program supervisor at each site. The 9-month intervention consisted of program staff members’ completing the pre-assessment and goal-setting worksheet, receiving technical support and training from LiveWell Greenville staff, attending networking meetings about nutrition and physical activity promotion strategies, and completing a postassessment. ResultsWe found significant positive changes in afterschool environments in the type and frequency of snacks offered, duration of children’s sedentary time, staff behaviors that supported healthy nutrition and physical activity practices, and education provided to staff, children, and parents.ConclusionWe found the LiveWell Greenville Afterschool Initiative, which involved self-assessment, goal setting and technical support, to be a successful strategy to change nutrition and physical activity environments in afterschool settings.

Background Little research has comprehensively explored how park features, quality indicators, and neighborhood environments are associated with observed park usage and physical activity (PA). This case study examined whether weekday park usage and PA differ by neighborhood type, across numerous categories of park features, and according to park feature condition and cleanliness. Methods Direct observation was used to capture the number of users and PA levels within 143 park features in 6 parks (3 urban, 3 suburban) over the course of six weeks. Audits of park environments assessed the type, condition, and cleanliness of all features and amenities. Results Urban parks experienced greater usage, but a higher proportion of sedentary users than suburban parks. Usage and PA levels differed across types of park features, with splash pads, pools, paths, and play structures having the greatest proportion of active users. Usage did not differ by park feature condition and cleanliness, but greater condition and cleanliness were generally associated with higher PA levels. Conclusions Factors such as neighborhood context, types of park features, and condition and cleanliness can impact park usage and PA levels and should be targets for researchers and planners aiming to foster more user-friendly and active neighborhood park environments.

IntroductionParks are important settings for increasing population-level physical activity (PA). The objective of this study was to evaluate Park Hop, an incentivized scavenger-hunt–style intervention designed to influence park usage, discovery, park-based PA, and perceptions of parks among children and adolescents in Greenville County, South Carolina.MethodsWe used 2 data collection methods: matched preintervention and postintervention parent-completed surveys and in-park observations during 4 days near the midpoint of the intervention. We used paired-samples t tests and logistic regression to analyze changes in park visitation, perceptions, and PA.ResultsChildren and adolescents visited an average of 12.1 (of 19) Park Hop parks, and discovered an average of 4.6 venues. In a subset of participants, from preintervention to postintervention, the mean number of park visits increased from 5.0 visits to 6.1 visits, the proportion of time engaged in PA during the most recent park visit increased from 77% to 87%, and parents reported more positive perceptions of the quality of park amenities. We observed more children and adolescents (n = 586) in the 2 intervention parks than in the 2 matched control parks (n = 305). However, the likelihood of children and adolescents engaging in moderate-to-vigorous PA was significantly greater in the control parks (74.3%) than in Park Hop parks (64.2%). ConclusionPark Hop facilitated community-collaboration between park agencies and positively influenced park usage, park discovery, time engaged in PA during park visits, and perceptions of parks. This low-cost, replicable, and scalable model can be implemented across communities to facilitate youth and family-focused PA through parks.