Across the nation, leaders across disciplines are coming together to create healthier communities. The RWJF Roadmaps to Health Prize, launched in 2013, honors outstanding local partnerships that are taking bold steps to address the multiple factors that influence health.
In a recent book, leaders in policy, finance, education and other fields stress the need for cross-sector collaboration and new approaches to build healthier communities. “To effectively reduce poverty and poor health... we now know that we must address both, as well as the contributing factors they share,” writes Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, RWJF President and CEO.
For a growing number of communities, achieving better health involves a combination of changes such as new investments in pre-schools, farmers’ markets, quality affordable housing, and safe places to exercise and play. Learn more about what a healthy community can look like, and how government, business, education, and other sectors are working together to create programs and policies to help people lead healthier lives.
United Way Worldwide President and CEO, Brian Gallagher, MBA, shares his take on the organization’s priorities, key partners and methods for mobilizing communities for social change. United Way focuses on: quality education to lead to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health.
The Healthier Communities Initiatives of the Y are built on the concept that local communities can work together to create healthy choices and support the pursuit of healthy lifestyles. More than 160 Ys are working in collaboration with community leaders to make these changes.
Read a Q&A with project director Monica VinluanDr. Douglas Jutte says unmet social needs—access to healthy food, transportation and housing—affect the health of Americans.
Mark Funkouser of the Governing Institute discusses how community health can figure into companies' decisions on where to set up shop.
"We all have a stake in creating a healthier community." Pat Remington, co-director, @CHRankings
Indiana's public and private sectors, led by Governor Mitch Daniels, have worked hard to make the state a healthier place to live. Indiana raised its cigarette tax - and consumption of tobacco products dropped by almost 20 percent. To reduce obesity, the health department is working with small businesses and school districts to increase access to healthy foods and physical activity.
Indiana's story, and five others, are featured in a report by Trust for America's Health about where employers are working with communities to make healthier choices easier for employees and their families.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) knows good buildings and urban plans do more than just look pretty—they can have a major impact on the health of the people who live there. Brooks Rainwater, AIA's director of public policy, shared examples of design and architectural projects in eight communities that create open spaces, easier access to recreation and transit and ample opportunities for exercise.
Read the Q&A on NewPublicHealth.orgThroughout the country, people are coming together with a shared vision, strong leadership, and commitment to making needed and lasting changes that broadly improve community vitality. This is happening in large urban settings and small rural ones; it's happening in places with tremendous resources and in places with few resources to draw from.
These programs give communities the tools, research and resources to address health and health care problems at their roots—where we live, learn, work, and play.
Helping communities make it easier for residents to stay healthy.
Read how Kansas City, Mo., expanded urban agriculture by transforming an abandoned lot into a public park with a community garden.
A health impact assessment in Alameda County will look at how transportation affects health by providing access to jobs, quality schools, health care and social services, and healthy food.
The Federal Reserve System and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are exploring how cross-sector and place-based approaches to revitalize communities can also improve health.
This national program offers evidence on what works to prevent childhood obesity by creating active communities.