Long-Range Planning for Health, Equity & Prosperity - A Primer for Local Governments

Long-Range Planning for Health, Equity & Prosperity - A Primer for Local Governments

ChangeLab Solutions has developed a resource by integrating health and equity considerations into planning practices. “This primer poses a series of questions in order to provoke thoughts on how planners can prioritize health and equity in their work. Readers of this resource will also gain an understanding of the ways that planning can support or impede health equity, as well as insight into how to integrate health and equity into everyday planning practice and decisionmaking. The Primer is for planners, local leaders, advocates, researchers, and consultants who want to advance health and equity in their communities through long-range planning.”

Highlighted from ChangeLab Solutions. Read more here.

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Anchor Collaboratives: Building Bridges With Place-Based Partnerships and Anchor Institutions

Anchor Collaboratives: Building Bridges With Place-Based Partnerships and Anchor Institutions

“Across the country, anchor institutions are beginning to understand and leverage the power of their economic assets to address social and economic disparities and revitalize local communities. Because of their commitment to place and their economic power, anchor institutions are uniquely positioned to stabilize local economies and begin to reverse the devastating effects of urban disinvestment. An increasing number of anchor institutions and partner organizations have joined to form place-based networks, or anchor collaboratives, to develop, implement, and support shared goals and initiatives that advance equitable and inclusive economic development strategies. The challenges our cities and communities face today are daunting. But when anchor institutions intentionally align their collective resources for stronger and more inclusive economies and healthier communities, they can make real change happen locally. The anchor mission work also helps these institutions to see themselves as threads of the social fabric of their community—and they begin to view their role as a part of the solution in bolder and broader ways. “

From Democracy Collaborative, comes Anchor Collaboratives: Building Bridges With Place-Based Partnerships and Anchor Institutions. This report highlights the work of Anchor Collaboratives across the country and their role in investing in place-based initiatives. Read the full report here.

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Essential Communities

Essential Communities

From America’s Essential Hospitals, comes Essential Communities. This site provides a resource for hospitals on the journey to community-integrated health care. Learn more about how this network of hospitals works to address social and economic factors that influence health, take a virtual tour of population health programs nationwide, and share what you’re working on!

From a resource library to an interactive map of programs, and a roadmap for implementing community-integrated health care, visit this site to learn more.

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Principles for Building Healthy and Prosperous Communities

Principles for Building Healthy and Prosperous Communities

From our partners at Build Healthy Places Network comes Principles for Building Healthy and Prosperous Communities: For work across sectors in low-income communities to improve health and well-being.“ These principles are derived from a thematic review of mission statements and principles from 35 organizations representing the community development, health, academic, government, finance, and philanthropic sectors. More than 200 respondents provided over 1,800 comments which helped refine the principles.”

Learn more about the principles here.

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Toolkit: Upstream Health Priorities for New Governors

The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and the de Beaumont Foundation have developed a set of practical, real-world tools to help governors and their teams address their policy priorities by improving health. From infographics and evidence, to state strategies to improve health, to framing key messages for state leaders, this toolkit provides a number of great resources and examples.

Community Control of Land & Housing

Community Control of Land & Housing

Community Control of Land & Housing: Exploring strategies for combating displacement, expanding ownership, and building community wealth. This report from Democracy Collaborative is based on dozens of interviews with practitioners, academics, and community members, as well as a review of various reports, studies, and surveys. The report shares the resulting findings through key research insights, a review of best practices, and relevant examples. It seeks to broaden awareness, discourse, and adoption of community control of land and housing strategies among various stakeholders who have a genuine desire to see stable, healthy, equitable, and sustainable local communities flourish. 

Read the full report here.

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Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment: Equity Action Guide

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment: Equity Action Guide

"Where we live, work, learn and play has a lasting impact on our health. The social facors that create health disparities also cause disparities in areas such as housing and transportation. The Office of Health Equity, in partnership with community organizations and other state agencies, developed a Colorado Equity Action Guide that looks at the root causes of inequity across Colorado through an in-depth review of community characteristics, stories and data. It leverages cross-sector collaboration and promotes data-sharing for sustainable community informed decision-making to advance equity."

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment

To access the guide, please click here.

 

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8 Policies that Have Contributed to Place Based Health Disparities Across Generations

8 Policies that Have Contributed to Place Based Health Disparities Across Generations

"Where you live plays a significant role in how healthy you are. But when it comes to promoting health, not all neighborhoods are created equal. And neighborhoods with the best access to health-promoting resources — like quality housing, good jobs, well-maintained parks, healthy food, and excellent schools — aren’t accessible to everyone.

Today, many of the differences between neighborhoods exist because of decades’ worth of interrelated policies that have cumulatively influenced where investment and opportunity have concentrated and who has access to them. The result is increasing health disparities and exacerbated inequities in communities across the country. Read on to learn more about 8 laws and policies that have created unhealthy places and about tools and resources that can help heal policy harms and create healthy neighborhoods for all..."

Erik Calloway & Chassidy Hanley | August 6, 2018

The read the 8 policies from ChangeLab Solutions, please click here.

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The Health Opportunity and Equity Initiative (HOPE)

The Health Opportunity and Equity Initiative (HOPE)

"The Health Opportunity and Equity (HOPE) Initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was launched to start a new conversation about health because we believe that every person in the U.S., no matter their background or ZIP code, should have a fair and just opportunity for the best possible health and well-being.

The HOPE Initiative tracks 28 indicators that span the life course, including health outcomes and indicators related to opportunity such as socioeconomic factors, the physical and social environment, and access to health care at the state and national level. Gaps in health do not develop by chance or by choice. These measures were chosen because they reflect the systems and policies that affect health equity. Data are also provided by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, making this the first tool of its kind..."

To learn more about Health Opportunity and Equity Initiative, visit the website here.

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Partnerships for Health Equity and Opportunity: A Healthcare Playbook for Community Developers

Partnerships for Health Equity and Opportunity: A Healthcare Playbook for Community Developers

"The United States spends nearly $3.5 trillion on medical care each year, with more than 80 percent spent on treating chronic disease — most of which is avoidable and concentrated among those living in low-income communities. Thus, over $1 trillion is spent every year on treating avoidable disease created by conditions of poverty, which can negatively affect the health of future generations.

What if we changed the paradigm from treating to preventing and reinvested that $1 trillion towards eliminating the intergenerational transmission of poor health and poverty? What would it take for prevention to encompass not just diet and exercise, but other dimensions like financial health, stable housing, access to healthy food, education, even community empowerment and agency?

This playbook from PHI's Build Healthy Places Network guides community developers toward partnerships with hospitals and healthcare systems. As stewards for the communities they serve, the community development sector develops and finances the physical spaces, infrastructure, and essential services needed to live a healthy and productive life and can serve as an action arm for advancing population health and health equity."

From Public Health Institute's Build Healthy Places Network comes the report Partnerships for Health Equity and Opportunity: A Healthcare Playbook for Community Developers. This piece can be found on Public Health Institute's Resource Page.

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