In November 2019, Build Healthy Places Network (the Network), with funding from The Kresge Foundation, launched Community Innovations to deepen outreach to and learning from local community development organizations that serve low-income communities and people of color. Community Innovations has a three-pronged goal: to enhance the Network’s understanding of how best to support local organizations’ cross-sector efforts; to connect local organizations to other peer organizations and the larger national dialogue, resources, and tools; and to embed capacity within organizations to undertake health strategies and engage with healthcare.
Read MoreBuild Healthy Places Network responds to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Read MoreWe are deeply saddened and appalled by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others who have lost their lives due to police brutality and other forms of racial injustices that continue to harm black and brown communities throughout the country. We stand as partners with the Black communities and millions of people who face racial discrimination everyday.
Read MoreAn obscure banking rule has quietly funneled millions of dollars into low-income communities, helping to reduce the deep health inequities between low-income and wealthier families in America. But that rule—the Community Reinvestment Act—is now under threat. In January, the three regulatory agencies overseeing the CRA proposed significant changes.
Read MoreIn 2003 in Coal Run, a small hollow in southeastern Ohio, 89-year-old Helen McCuen still paid a ”water man” to fill a cistern buried in her front yard twice a month. Turning on a tap and getting fresh water wasn’t an option. McCuen lived in a largely African American part of town that lacked running water. The nearby city told residents it was too expensive to extend water lines to them. Meanwhile, a few miles away in a white neighborhood, water flowed freely. “The water stopped where the black folks started,” one local resident told the New York Times. It turned out that federal funds were used to extend water lines up to Coal Run but not to the African American community. A lawsuit would eventually force the city to lay water lines to the black residents.
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