Client: Town of Watertown

Project Team

• Town of Watertown Health Department

  Town of Watertown Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee

  Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety

  Watertown Community Gardens

  Sustainable Watertown

The Town of Watertown received a grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s (MAPC) Sustainable Communities program to create a baseline study for wellness. Civic Space Collaborative created two community surveys to identify needs and opportunities for promoting active living and access to healthy food, yielding input from over 450 respondents. As part of the process, 20 stakeholder interviews with Town officials and community group leaders were conducted. In addition to conducting the survey, we conducted a document review of Town ordinances and made recommendations for new language. The project culminated in the “Watertown Wellness Baseline Report.”, the first recommendation for which was to create a steering committee and hire a program manager to move the work forward.

As a result of work done as part of the Baseline study, an eight-member Live Well Watertown Task Force formed in 2014 and by 2017 there was a full-time staff member to lead the Live Well Watertown effort.