OPPORTUNITIES

New Podcast Episode on Housing as a Political Determinant of Health

[ Podcast ]

A recently released SIREN Coffee & Science podcast episode explores why and how healthcare organizations should engage in housing advocacy. Based out of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), SIREN Coffee & Science is a biweekly series of 30-minute conversations between experts in social intervention research, practice, and policy. This episode featured a conversation between Bich Ha Pham, Director of Communications and Policy at the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN), and Mike Koprowski, National Campaign Director of National Low Income Housing Coalition’s Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign. HAN, a member of the OSAH campaign’s Roundtable, is a national collaboration with over 65 leading healthcare systems. Listen to the podcast episode here.

The Healthcare Anchor Network Launches!

[ Announcement ]

The Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) has become an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization after five years of growth in scale and impact. After having launched many collective initiatives, they are defining leadership in the sector through anchor mission commitments, including in place-based Investment and impact purchasing. Member institutions represent over 900 hospitals from nearly every state in the nation. Anchor institutions adopting the anchor mission framework are a critical component of community wealth building (CWB), a much-needed solution to address the root causes of poverty and health inequities. To learn more about HAN, click here.

Improving Homeownership Outcomes Is Critical to Narrowing the Wealth Equity Gap

[ Webinar ]

Homeownership is a critical wealth-building tool, yet households of color find it more difficult to achieve homeownership than white households do. To better understand these inequities, the Urban Institute has spent more than a year analyzing homeownership disparities by race and ethnicity, including the racial and ethnic gaps in housing wealth, the disparate impact of economic cycles on Black and Hispanic homeowners, and the future of racial homeownership gaps absent key policy change. Join the Urban Institute for a summary of their findings and an ensuing conversation about strategies to advance racial equity in homeownership. To view the webinar recording, click here.  

Measuring Impact for Health Equity

[ Webinar ]

The National Academy of Medicine Culture of Health Program will host a virtual meeting on 1/25 and 1/26 to:

• Examine key considerations for measuring, evaluating, and communicating the impact of efforts to accelerate health equity
• Highlight existing approaches to measuring and evaluating health equity strategies in various sectors
• Elevate promising strategies to measure impact of efforts to sustain and advance health equity outcomes

To register, click here.

RESOURCES

Cross-Sector Collaborations for Increasing Homeownership Opportunities

 
Revitalizing disinvested neighborhoods, creating communities of opportunity, alleviating poverty, and closing racial wealth gaps are among the most complex challenges facing our society. While there are no simple approaches to solving these complex problems, cross-sector collaborations - bringing in a diversity of people, institutions, perspectives, and interventions- are a promising approach to moving the dial. In this blog, Paul Weech writes on the multi-sector collaborative approach to increasing homeownership opportunities for communities of color. To read the blog, click here.

Exploring Equitable Planning Solutions Through Mapping

Change Lab Solution's new blog post — Exploring Equitable Planning Solutions Through Mapping — highlights mapping as a powerful tool to visualize the impact of planning policies over time. The article discusses two neighborhoods in Oakland, California, where residents born just three miles apart have a 15-year difference in life expectancy, due to health disparities that are a legacy of the racially discriminatory practice of redlining. The blog also provides a suite of planning resources with step-by-step instructions for centering equity and including diverse community groups in every phase of the planning process. To learn more, click here. 

The Water of Systems Change

Foundations involved in systems change can increase their odds for success by focusing on the least explicit but most powerful conditions for change, while also turning the lens on themselves. FSG, through a partnership with the Aspen Institute recently offered a webinar based on The Water of Systems Change model that aims to clarify what it means to shift these conditions. FSG offers the “inverted triangle” framework as an actionable model for funders and others interested in creating systems change, particularly those who are working to advance equity. To view the webinar recording and read the full report, click here. 

Are Tiny Homes A Piece of the Affordable Housing Puzzle?

More and more tiny homes are being built across the U.S. Where are they being developed, who they are serving, and what obstacles do they face in addressing the need for more affordable housing? In recent years tiny homes have been increasingly used as transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness. There were at least 1,200 such homes in 34 active villages across the country as of July 2019, according to a University of Missouri study. Such communities have rapidly proliferated since then, especially municipally sponsored transitional villages like those in Los Angeles. To learn more, click here. 

Research Shows Housing and Neighborhoods Shape Child Poverty

Children’s HealthWatch recently released a new research article that explores the connection between housing and child poverty. The article reviews how historical housing policies are linked to child health outcomes, examines four key housing domains that impact child and family health, and provides multi-level solutions. The article makes the case for reducing child poverty and advancing health equity through stronger housing policies. To read the research article, click here. 

Want Equity and Prosperity? Invest in Urban Public Spaces.

Leaders from the Kresge Foundation and Memphis River Parks Partnership call for intentional investment in our shared civic infrastructure as a pathway to more equitable and prosperous communities in this op-ed. Over the past year, Civic Commons’ cross-sector working group, Place Driving Equity and Prosperity, wrote Place Driving Equity, an evidence-based action guide on the role of public space for shared prosperity. This new publication details the research, public policies and actions that can deliver shared prosperity through investments in public space. To read the op-ed, click here. To read the action guide, click here. 

Public Transportation Facilitates Access to Health Care, Particularly for People Covered by Medicaid

New analysis shows that after Minneapolis cut the tape on a new 11-mile-long light rail line, people living near the light rail had fewer missed health care appointments and more walk-in visits. In 2014, Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, completed an expansion of their public transit system that sought to connect the downtown business corridors of both cities. Now, new research shows that in addition to its intended purpose, the 11-mile-long light rail line also facilitated greater access to health care for those living near the line. The study—led by researchers from the Urban Institute and the Mongan Institute—examined whether the frequency of missed or “no-show” medical appointments declined after the light rail expansion. To learn more, click here. 

Survey: Attitudes, Views, and Values Around Health, Equity, and Race Amid COVID-19

Underserved communities faced more challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic than others, largely due to the impacts of systemic racism on the health and economic well-being of people of color. This national survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explores perspectives on health, equity and race. To access the survey results, click here.  

Fact Sheet on the Importance of Safe and Affordable Homes for Infants and Toddlers

Idaho Asset Building Network (IABN) partnered with Idaho First Steps Alliance and recently released a new fact sheet on the importance of safe and affordable homes for the healthy development of infants and toddlers. The fact sheet explores how stable housing contributes to strong families, positive early learning experiences to foster healthy brain development and good health in very young children. The fact sheet includes data on the impact of housing on families with small children and makes federal policy recommendations to ensure Idaho families have access to safe, stable, and affordable homes. IABN is a state partner of the Opportunity Starts at Home multi-sector affordable homes campaign. To learn more click here.

CITY TEAM NEWS

Savannah, GA

Partners from the Savannah Invest Health city team, led by Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition (CGIC) were awarded a grant of $400,000 on behalf of the Savannah/Chatham and coastal community from the Pittulloch Foundation through Resilient Georgia. This grant focuses the coastal region to engage in ACEs Prevention and trauma informed and responsive community development in PSE (policy, system and environment change) with an equity lens. They have developed a Collective Impact Model to guide the work. The funding and support received from Resilient Georgia has ignited community discussion regarding ACEs and strengthened capacity to work collectively toward building trauma-responsive practices and policies.  While the community has a history of coalition building, the Resilient Georgia funds have fueled the collaborative efforts through a community of practice where they share resources and evidence-based practices and learn from other Georgia communities. To read more about the resulting programs from this work, click here.

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