Month: June 2018
What does a healthy, thriving city look like?
It’s time to reimagine our cities infused with walkable, small pockets of nature to help us heal, strengthen and come together. This infographic illustrates all the different places Sacred Places can serve its communities—in urban neighborhoods, hospitals, libraries, prisons, schools—anywhere people are in need of stress reduction, peace of mind, or to combat social isolation…
Neighborhood green space and health in a large urban center
Neighborhood green space and health in a large urban center, Scientific Reports Studies have shown that natural environments can enhance health; in this article, the authors build upon that work by examining the associations between comprehensive greenspace metrics and health. They focused on a large urban population center (Toronto, Canada) and related the two domains…
Designer’s approach for scene selection in tests of preference and restoration along a continuum of natural to manmade environments
Designer’s approach for scene selection in tests of preference and restoration along a continuum of natural to manmade environments, Frontiers in Psychology “It is well-established that the experience of nature produces an array of positive benefits to mental well-being. Much less is known about the specific attributes of green space which produce these effects. In…
Nature and the Environment: The Psychology of Its Benefits and Its Protection
Nature and the Environment: The Psychology of Its Benefits and Its Protection, Frontiers in Psychology In this editorial, the authors “bring together research and scholarship from two seemingly disparate fields: (1) the psychological and health benefits attained by interacting with natural environments and (2) the variables that facilitate people’s recognition of environmental issues that would…
Preliminary Analysis of TKF “Book & Bench” texts
Preliminary Analysis of TKF “Book & Bench” texts using unsupervised semantic mapping of natural language with Leximancer concept mapping #CEL001. In Cornell Civic Ecology Lab (Ed.), Civic Ecology Lab White Paper Series In 2011, one of the research teams competing for a TKF Foundation National Nature Sacred Award grant proposed exploring the creation and stewardship…
Seeing the forest for the trees: hybridity and social-ecological symbols, rituals and resilience in post-disaster contexts
Seeing the forest for the trees: hybridity and social-ecological symbols, rituals and resilience in postdisaster contexts, Ecology and Society This paper looks at the importance of “so-called social-ecological symbols, especially the potent hybrid symbols of trees and their handling after a disaster” while exploring “the notion of hybridity” applying it to the hybrid symbol of…
Refuges of local resilience: Community gardens in post-Sandy New York City
Refuges of local resilience: Community gardens in post-Sandy New York City This paper explores the role of community gardens in coastal “red zones” of New York City by analyzing the meaning and relevance of community garden spaces in the resilience and recovery of local residents and community garden members following Hurricane Sandy. From April 2013…
Recognizing Stewardship Practices as Indicators of Social Resilience
Recognizing Stewardship Practices as Indicators of Social Resilience: In Living Memorials and in a Community Garden, Sustainability This paper addresses the questions: How can social resilience indicators be operationalized as stewardship practices in an urban context? The authors analyzed qualitative data from community managed-open spaces in the New York City area that have responded to…
Holistic Care in the US Military I—The Epidaurus Project
Holistic Care in the US Military I—The Epidaurus Project: An Initiative in Holistic Medicine for the Military Health System, 2001-2012, Global Advances in Health and Medicine This paper describes the history and findings of the Epidaurus Project, a Uniformed Services university-affiliated project to bring holistic care, that includes nature, and evidence-based design into the Military…
A Southern Interpretation of Sacred
In the hills of Northeast Alabama, a new network of 18 Sacred Places is about to begin taking shape. Early last fall, the Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama announced a grant program affiliated with a health fund; a new direction, new thinking on how to foster healthy communities through grantmaking. The foundation would grant funds for…
