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Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) Tools: Evaluating Health-Friendly Environments in Small Communities

The RALA tools are a set of instruments to assess the physical activity friendliness of rural areas under 10,000 inhabitants. They include Community-Wide Assessment, Program and Policy Assessment, Street Segment Assessment, and supplemental tools like the Food Environment Assessment Codebook. Developed by Maine Rural Health Research Centre, these tools help identify strengths, needs, and opportunities for improvement in community infrastructure and planning for active living.

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Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) Tools: Evaluating Health-Friendly Environments in Small Communities

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  1. Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) Tools

  2. What is the Built Environment? Human-made or modified physical surroundings in which people live, work, learn and play. Adapted from: British Columbia Provincial Health Services Authority

  3. The Relationship Between the Built Environment and Health

  4. How Planning and Design Affect Health Planning and investment policies (Acts & Regulations, provincial initiatives, regional and municipal plans, zoning and development rules) Urban form patterns (density mix, transport options, access to, and location of, parks and schools) Individual behaviour (amount of walking/biking, social isolation, diet choices, recreation & physical activity) Ripple Effect Population health impacts (chronic illness, pollution exposure, traffic accidents, social cohesion) Adapted from: Frank, Kavage & Litman 2006

  5. Co-Benefits of Healthy Built Environments

  6. What are the RALA Tools? • Set of tools to measure the “physical activity friendliness” of rural communities. • Designed for communities of <10,000. • 1st Part: • Section1: Community-Wide Assessment (CWA) • Section 2:Program and Policy Assessment (PPA) • Section 3:Street Segment Assessment (SSA) • 2nd Part: • Scoring the RALA tools

  7. RALA Tools Development • Developed by researchers, Maine Rural Health Research Centre, University of Southern Maine • Adapted environmental audit tools for rural communities to address their unique qualities • Tested & refined by researchers at: • University of Southern Maine • Tufts University • University of Alabama • University of Mississippi

  8. RALA Steps • Understanding the community • Preparation of information & materials • Completing the tools • Scoring • Reporting

  9. Community-Wide Assessment Tool

  10. Program & Policy Assessment Tool

  11. Street Segment Assessment Tool

  12. Supplementary Food Environment Assessment Codebook

  13. Value of the RALA Tools • Assess accessibility • Looks at the community as a whole • Provides detailed look at specific segments of community • Assesses the programs & policies • Identifies strengths and needs of the community

  14. Value of the RALA Tools • Identifies opportunities for improvement • Inventory of infrastructure in the community • Aid development of plans to support active living • Baseline for future plans/projects & funding

  15. Questions?

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