…A blog post and accompanying infographic by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City explores the different ways that the Affordable Care Act could improve the health of communities….

Amanda Aronczyk of WNYC investigates New York’s debate on whether Medicaid dollars should be used to pay for supportive housing….

…RWJF‘s Marjorie Paloma writes in Shelterforce on the need for collaboration between community development, health and housing to improve the health of neighborhoods….

Developed in partnership with the American Public Health Association, Georgia Tech, APA and the National Network of Public Health Institutes, the Clearinghouse offers both academic and professional training resources that address the link between public health with planning, architecture, health impact assessment, and transportation engineering, among others….

…Nancy Andrews of the Low Income Investment Fund and Brandee McHale of the Citi Foundation write in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on the need for the “community quarterback”: a model in which a single local organization serves as a lead systems integrator for antipoverty work within a community, bringing together people who work across sectors such as affordable…

…Housing mobility can complement community revitalization for children with serious health challenges. Philip Tegeler of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and Salimah Hankins of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland write in Shelterforce about the advantages of programs like Baltimore’s Housing Mobility Program, which has moved over 1,500 very low-income families to desegregated “areas of opportunity.”…

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Morgan Stanley and the Kresge Foundation have partnered to create the Healthy Futures Fund, an initiative to support development of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in underserved areas as well as affordable housing that incorporates health programs for low-income residents. The fund is seeded with $100 million in equity, loans and grants,…

…In a dangerous cycle, medical bills are a common cause of foreclosure—and the stress and financial crisis of foreclosure causes an increase in serious health problems. Author: Rachel Blake, Regional Housing Legal Services…

Health centers offer care to people who are isolated from traditional medical options because of various factors and the investment is paying off. Today, with federal investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), the number of health centers has reached 1,200. Author: Peg Underhill, Capital Link…

…Healthy People, by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For 3 decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to: Encourage collaborations across communities and sectors. Empower individuals toward making informed health decisions. Measure the impact of prevention activities.  …

In 2001, CalPERS established the California Initiative to invest private equity in traditionally underserved markets, with the objective of generating attractive financial returns. This report examines the impact of the Initiative as a model of targeted investment….

…A collaborative initiative by three federal agencies aims to increase the supply of nutritious foods in urban and rural areas where access to healthy food is low. Jacob Wascalus of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis writes in the April 2013 of Community Dividend about how collaborative projects can create the critical mass necessary to make healthy food environments…

For millions of Americans, a steady job in safe working conditions is much more than a paycheck. Steady employment can provide the income, benefits and stability necessary for good health. Read a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issue brief on the links between stable, well-paying jobs and better health….

Despite leading the world on medical care spending, Americans have worse health and shorter lives than people in other affluent nations. Our international ranking has been slipping over time, and it is not only poor Americans who are affected. Middle-class and even wealthy Americans also are less healthy than their counterparts in other affluent countries. The results of…

…In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) convened the Commission to Build a Healthier America to help us find better ways to improve the health of our nation. The Commission—a national, nonpartisan group of leaders from both the public and private sectors—issued 10 sweeping recommendations aimed at improving the health of all Americans. The Commission’s work sparked a…

The Low Income Investment Fund developed the Social Impact Calculator, a tool that allows you to put a dollar value on the benefits of things like an affordable home, a great school or access to transit. Read a two-pager on the Social Impact Calculator and learn more about its methodologies….

Pay for Success is a new financial and contracting tool that pays investor-funded nonprofits for delivering measurable social outcomes. This approach, while still new, increases investment in evidence-based programs and creates investable opportunities for impact investors and potentially CRA-motivated banks as well. One particularly ripe opportunity for Pay for Success is in health improvement. This article, authored by…

…This Health Impact Assessment (HIA) examines the potential health impacts that could result from investments made by the Healthy Neighborhoods Equity Fund (HNEF), a $30 million private equity fund model that would consider the community, environmental, and health benefits of a proposed project as well as the financial risks and returns. The analysis was conducted by using three Transit…

…in America. The annual Rankings provide a revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work and play. They provide a starting point for change in communities. The Roadmaps provide guidance and tools to understand the data, and strategies that communities can use to move from education to action. Follow the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps…

Why does education matter so much to health? While it’s known that education leads to better jobs and higher incomes, research also shows that better-educated individuals live longer, healthier lives than those with less education, and their children are more likely to thrive. Yet changing demographic trends and rising college costs threaten the future of education in the…

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s NewPublicHealth blog published a series of infographics exploring the connections between our health and the places where we live, learn, work and play, View their infographic on education and health below:…

…The National Center for Healthy Housing, the Center for Housing Policy, ChangeLab Solutions, and Trust for America’s Health released an issue brief calling for greater collaboration between the public health and housing communities. The paper recommends a more coordinated and integrated approach among housing, environmental health, and public health agencies to help improve the health of children, older adults…

…budget decisions, and federal agriculture and energy policies can all impact our health. Health impact assessments (HIAs) allow policy-makers to consider how proposed policies that may seem unrelated to health would affect health, and could be used to improve it. HIAs can also help marshal community support for a project, facilitate collaboration across sectors, and offer benefits for businesses….

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s NewPublicHealth blog published a series of infographics exploring the connections between our health and the places where we live, learn, work and play, View their infographic on transportation and health below:…

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s NewPublicHealth blog published a series of infographics exploring the connections between our health and the places where we live, learn, work and play, View their infographic on employment and health below:…

…Through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Communities Program, communities are working to reduce chronic diseases by changing the places and organizations that touch people’s lives every day. The program’s tools for community action include: A Guide to Community Preventive Services, offering science-based recommendations and findings on strategies and policies that improve health and prevent disease in…

…Across America, babies born just a few miles apart have dramatic differences in health outcomes. These maps, created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America, illustrate how a short distance between two city neighborhoods can mean large disparities in life expectancy.   Metro Map: Washington D.C. by RWJF on RWJF.org Metro Map: New Orleans,…

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, is a national initiative designed to promote the use of health impact assessments (HIAs) as a decision-making tool for policymakers. Analyze data on HIAs and their impact across the country, read the latest news on HIAs and learn about upcoming events….

…Measurement can help community development and health practitioners align and optimize their investments and leverage additional resources to achieve shared goals. However, there is no clear guidance for reconciling the established systems for measuring community development activities and outputs—such as housing units built, jobs created, and people served—with the outcomes and impacts of health. The Network’s executive director Doug…

…It is increasingly well recognized that the design and operation of the communities in which people live, work, learn, and play significantly influence their health. However, within the real estate industry, the health impacts of transportation, community development, and other construction projects, both positive and negative, continue to operate largely as economic externalities: unmeasured, unregulated, and for the most…