Julia De Martini Day, BA, is a planner and advocate for Transportation Alternatives (TA).  Julia primarily works on the Pedestrian Safety and Livable Streets campaigns.  Her work has focused on safer streets for senior residents and developing playstreets in East Harlem to increase physical activity and support the NYC Food and Fitness Partnership.

More than one in 10 adults in Central and East Harlem have diabetes-this rate is higher than anywhere else in Manhattan, and one of the highest rates in NYC.  This disease can make it more likely for you to develop other serious health problems like strokes, heart attacks,

Vivian W. Kurutz, wellness director of the Harlem Center for Healthy Living (HCHL), talks about how HCHL aims to help Harlem residents be healthier in all parts of their lives.

Mary Alice Lee and Maddalena Polletta work for the NYC Playground Program at the Trust for Public Land (TPL). Maddalena works as the coordinator of the NYC's Children's Gardening Program at TPL and is aware of children's interest in gardening and the natural world.  Since open spaces and community gardens are important to TPL, they include a lot of "green" elements in the playgrounds they build for schools in New York City. Read more below!

Vivian W. Kurutz, the director of wellness at the Harlem Center for Healthy Living (HCHL), has a passion for health and wellness. Her goal is to share that passion with the Harlem community. Learn more about Vivian below! 

Mary Alice Lee and Maddalena Polletta work hard to build playgrounds at New York City school yards through the Trust for Public Land (TPL), but sometimes they face difficulties during the process. In this article, they talk about some of the challenges and how they get past them.

Mary Alice Lee and Maddalena Polletta from the Trust for Public Land (TPL) work with schools throughout New York City to build new playgrounds. The process of creating the playgrounds involves the students and staff at the school as well as parents and community members in order to build the best playgrounds possible.  It takes three months to design the playground, three months for drawings and approvals, and four to six months to construct the playground.  After a year of hard work, the students from the design team, the school, and the community are able to have fun on the playgrounds! Read more below!