…A report by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the National Association of County and City Health Officials provides an overview of several partnership opportunities available to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and local health departments (LHDs) seeking to improve health outcomes in their community, while promoting cost-effective care….

…as educational attainment, income, access to healthy food and the safety of a neighborhood tend to correlate with individual health outcomes in that neighborhood.” These factors are referred to as the social determinants of health. Using community level data available through the City of Chicago Data Portal, as well as aggregated census tract level economic data compiled by the Federal…

…Success Measures is an outcome evaluation resource for community development organizations, intermediaries and funders. A social enterprise based at NeighborWorks® America, Success Measures was created by practitioners and funders who wanted to document their impact for the people and communities they serve. Its participatory approach equips nonprofits and their funders with skills and tools needed to demonstrate results and…

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….

…MacArthur’s How Housing Matters to Families and Communities initiative explores the notion that stable, quality housing may be an essential “platform” that promotes positive outcomes in education, employment, and physical and mental health, among other areas. To that end, the foundation embarked on a five-year, $25 million research investment, which included support for a research network and 42…

…Across the country, new partnerships between community development finance and health organizations are being formed to create healthier communities. To spotlight one example from the Ninth Federal Reserve District: When Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, a community development financial institution, recently created a fund to attract socially inclined companies to invest in housing, Twin Cities-based health organization UnitedHealth Group, Inc.,…

Philip Tegeler of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Mindy Fullilove of the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University and Sister Lillian Murphy of Mercy Housing have a conversation with Shelterforce about the intersections between place and health.  …

…Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, writes in Investing in What Works for America’s Communities on the social determinants of health and the need to work together in health and community development to accelerate change.  …

…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…

…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….

…and economically-thriving communities tend to be healthier. Therefore, perhaps the most important contribution that community development finance provides — more than the affordable apartments, more than the startup capital for small businesses, more than the funding for a grocery store, charter school, or day care center — is the larger contribution of a more vibrant and healthier community. In the…

…A working paper examines the California Organized Insurance Network (COIN) CDFI Tax Credit Program, its job expansion implications and key drivers necessary to replicate the model….

…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…

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…

…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 United States, which may impact how long people live and how healthy people feel while alive. This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issue brief examines the strong connections between education and health….

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 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:…

…Many of the biggest policy decisions that impact our well-being are made outside of the health and healthcare sectors. For example, local zoning and transportation planning, state 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…

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:…

…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 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…

…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….

…Testimony by Nancy Andrews of the Low Income Investment Fund, prepared for the RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America, on the need for better collaboration between the health and community development sectors. If I could make a wish for community development as a whole, it would be that we reach across the aisle in partnership with our colleague…

…Recognition by the business community of the need to invest in creating healthy communities is growing. Visionary leaders from business and emerging countries have met to talk about innovation and investments in communities. These leaders recognize the need for addressing social determinants of health in order to enhance the health and well-being of communities and to further the progress…

…This issue of Community Investments explores cross-sector community development and lifts up best practices from pioneers in the field….

…field of health impact assessments (HIAs) provides a way to factor health outcomes into decisions that affect both housing and neighborhoods, such as zoning, road-building, codes, or neighborhood revitalization. With HIAs, doctors and public health experts can work with communities to inform decisions in other fields that will help people lead healthier lives. Author: Aaron Wernham, Health Impact Project…

…Community development financial institutions (CDFIs), which play an important role in providing financial products and services to underserved communities, are increasingly being asked to demonstrate measurable returns. This demand for quantifiable impact is not unique to the CDFI industry. As public and private resources become increasingly scarce, it is a challenge they share with many other sectors. In response,…

…Cross-sector strategies require a common framework and shared standards for achieving maximum impact. Jeff Edmonson of StriveTogether and Nancy Zimpher of the State University of New York discuss the importance of setting standards for collective impact and getting a better social return on investment in our most challenging issues. “In the “new normal” where resource limitations are a fact…