Dear Invest Health city team members and friends,
While economic relief efforts continue nationally, yet another beam of hope in restoring health to communities comes in the form of a third vaccine approval. As we march on in efforts to create a just, fair, and well society, let’s reflect on what a better new normal could look like? And how we can move forward without leaving anyone behind.
In this issue we get back to the basics of examining the shifts needed in policies, programs and practices that help us build a thriving nation. Thriving together requires a shift in how investments are prioritized, starting with redefining policy action and building civic engagement, as described in our guest blog by Build Healthy Places Network colleagues. Together, we can work to ensure that the conditions most impacting health and wellbeing are supported by the policies and practices that can enable them.
As we move ahead in recovery, let’s continue seeking out those actions that help us get beyond rhetoric. Rooted in anti-racist policies, programs, and practices – our actions speak louder than our words, so let’s think about how we’re showing up.
In partnership,
Jennifer Fassbender and the Invest Health Program Team |
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OPPORTUNITIES
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Shifting the Scales of Wealth and Power
[ Webinar ]
Amplifying the rising tide of voices for racial justice, the COVID-19 crisis brought long held, ongoing racial inequities into sharp focus as Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color experienced disproportionately higher rates of illness and death from the virus. To construct a better future, the root causes of the racial inequities and wealth disparities that exact such a heavy toll on communities must be addressed. The Asset Funders Network will host a learning discussion exploring a place-based model creating racial and economic justice through community-led change: the Oregon Economic Justice Roundtable. This shared table of majority BIPOC grantmakers and community organizations works actively to build trust, shift narratives, develop a shared policy and action agenda as well as more inclusive funding practices. To register for this event, click here.
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Community Heart & Soul Seed
Grant Program
[ Grant ]
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The Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant Program provides $10,000 in startup funding for resident-driven groups in small cities and towns to implement the Community Heart & Soul model, which uses coaches, champions, partners, and others to improve local decision-making and strengthen the social, cultural, and economic vibrancy. US cities and towns between 2,500 and 30,00 people are eligible to apply. To register, click here.
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RESOURCES
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A Healthier Way Forward: How Policy Action and Civic Engagement Can Redefine Normalcy After the Pandemic
[ Blog ]
 Before the pandemic began, BIPOC communities were already disadvantaged, with disproportionate disease mortality and morbidity rates, unequal pay for equal work, and limited access to equitable education and healthcare. These disparities are not new, but rather a reflection of what has been brewing in America for hundreds of years. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the catalyst for renewed conversation about health and race disparities in America. Beyond COVID-19 legislation, new policies need to be adopted aimed at addressing the underlying issues to combat inequities. Zachary Travis, Randall Lewis Health and Policy Fellow with Build Healthy Places Network, explores opportunities to redefine the new normal with equity-focused policy action. To read the blog, click here.
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Healthy Neighborhood Investments:
A Policy Scan & Strategy Map
[ Report ]
Build Healthy Places Network partnered with Shift Health Accelerator to create the Healthy Neighborhood Investments: A Policy Scan & Strategy Map that identifies several policy actions for advancing health and racial equity through cross-sector investments. The Policy Scan serves as a tool for community-owned priority setting that reduces inequities and strengthens neighborhood revitalization, with a geographic emphasis on California. To read the report, click here.
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Vital Conditions for Thriving Together
[ Springboard ]
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Vital conditions shape the exposures, choices, opportunities, and adversities that we each encounter throughout our lives. Each vital condition is distinct and indispensable. Together, they form an interdependent system that shapes opportunities for people and places to thrive. The Well Being Institute launched the Thriving Together Springboard to explore what vital conditions are essential for everyone to achieve well-being. In the "Investment" vein, the Well Being Institute describes that, to date, most investors have either consciously or unconsciously supported the existing system of inequality. Americans’ mental models must be reframed toward shared fate and equal opportunity to drive well-being. To explore the Thriving Together Springboard, click here.
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America’s Racist Housing Rules Really
Can Be Fixed
[ Series ]
Neighborhoods matter, says Vox’s Dylan Matthews, as well as researchers Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz, who found in 2016 that moving to a wealthier neighborhood not only increased the likelihood that kids would go to college, but also increased earnings by roughly 31 percent by the time they’d reached their mid-20s. Exclusionary zoning is a huge contributor to preventing families from gaining wealth. Single-family zoning, which means it’s illegal to build anything other than single-family homes, is prevalent in the suburbs. Single-family homes are more expensive than apartments, townhomes, or duplexes, and that makes rent costly, too. Exclusionary zoning laws essentially trap many Black families into low-income neighborhoods by pricing them out of richer ones. To read the story of Kennetha's struggle to stay housed, and learn more, click here.
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If ‘Housing Is a Right,’ How Do We
Make It Happen?
[ Op-Ed ]
“Housing is a right in America,” President Biden said last month as he signed an executive order promising to address racial discrimination and inequality in housing. On Tuesday, the administration announced an extension of the federal foreclosure moratorium through the end of June. While this temporary measure is a necessary Band-Aid on a gaping economic wound, housing is not yet a right in this country — far from it. Mr. Biden’s emphasis on redressing racial inequity in housing provides a welcome contrast, though, to the long history of the federal government’s housing policies, which created barriers to safe, affordable housing in all 50 states, especially for communities of color. To learn more, click here.
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COVID-19 Racial Health Disparities Highlight Why We Need to Address Structural Racism
[ Blog ]
 New COVID-19 data have revealed an alarming trend: Black families face a much higher risk of contracting and dying from the virus. Residents of majority-Black counties have three times the rate of infection and almost six times the rate of deaths as residents of majority-white counties. Public officials have focused on the underlying health issues that disproportionately affect African Americans, such as diabetes and hypertension, as contributors to the larger impact of COVID-19 on the Black community. But it is important to go further and examine the root cause of these racial disparities in underlying health conditions. To read the full blog post by Kilolo Kijakazi, click here.
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The Benefits of Using Community Land Trusts with Low Income Housing Tax Credits
[ Report ]
 The Urban Land Conservancy released a new report that explores the benefits of using community land trusts with Low Income Housing Tax Credits. In Denver, as in many cities across the country, the affordable housing shortage has been a pervasive and accelerating problem for decades as the stock of affordable housing has failed to keep pace with growth. Although written before the coronavirus pandemic, the relevancy of the developments described in this report highlight what is now even more urgent as the demand for permanent affordable housing increases and the solutions are even more vital than at any time in recent history. To read the full report, click here.
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CITY TEAM NEWS
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Greensboro, NC
Invest Health Greensboro team members engaged in multiple webinars this past month. The first, hosted by the National League of Cities' Housing Hazards and Health Stakeholder Series, investigated how cities can engage local health stakeholders, diverse community interests, and other policymakers and government actors. The second, called "Exclusion by Design," explored the historical discriminatory lending regulations have led to systemically ingrained segregation through the zoning practice of redlining. To watch the recording, click and here.
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Keep Sharing Updates
Keep sharing updates on your work, including special events and news media pieces to us using this online form. We look forward to hearing from you and the notable news your Invest Health city team is creating! |
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