While the great outdoors offers communities health and recreational benefits, for some they aren’t accessible. A recent study review led by a professor at Furman University explored current research on the accessibility and promotion of trails and parks to youth, and specifically youth from low-income communities. The researchers found that research on the topic to be lacking.
“We were not expecting to see so little and true experimental designs in which you say ‘OK, let’s put this trail in this community and let’s see if it increases use,’” says Julian Reed, professor of health sciences at Furman. Reed says he’s studied trail use for years, including researching the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville.
It’s this expertise that drew the attention of the National Collaborative on Child Obesity Research (NCCOR), which tapped Reed to head the research review. NCCOR partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the project in order to gain a better understanding of where the current research lies on getting under-resourced youth on the trails.
“Right now trail use by youth is low overall in the United States, but they’re really lower among under-resourced, low-income and communities of color,” says Reed. Barriers preventing use can range from cost of traveling to the trail, not having the necessary transportation or not being able to afford the correct equipment.
Reed and his team found there was a lack of research on trail accessibility and youth interaction with their local trails and what has been done to increase trail use. He says it’s not just about a research question, either. It’s about policy and equity. Reed says it’s necessary to engage policymakers who have the power to allocate resources to projects promoting trails and parks.
“We need to be thinking better about how we get youth outside, of course, [including] those under-resourced, because they’re not getting the same access as other people in more affluent communities,” he says.
