To whom it may concern:

I would like to endorse Try/on Life Community Farm. The Farm is an important opportunity to bring together the synergistic public health benefits of strong community involvement and the natural world. I am pleased to submit this letter of support for the Farm's proposal to develop a working demonstration of sustainable community development.

As a professor of public health at PSU I have been fortunate to work with community projects at the cutting edge of urban planning and public health. I have recently had the opportunity to document the association between community involvement and overall community health and well-being at City Repair's Intersection Repair projects, published in the American Journal of Public Health. In an attempt to modify the residential urban environment to make it more conducive to active living, City Repair has worked with City Council in Portland OR to create an ordinance for community-designed neighborhood enhancement projects.

TLC Farm represents a remarkable opportunity for residents of Portland to experience how healthfully we can inhabit the living edge between urban and wild, integrating social and natural ecologies within the city limits. It will afford an opportunity to gain hands-on exposure to sustainable urban agriculture, natural and green building, and habitat restoration practices. Through its education program, necessary values and skills will be made accessible to a wide cross-section of the city.

I hope you will join me in supporting this exciting project.

Sincerely,

Jan Semenza
Associate Professor
School of Community Health
Portland State University
PO Box 751
Portland OR 97207-0751
Phone: 503-725-8262
Fax: 503-725-5100