In the last decade, the links between organizations involved in community development and those involved in health equity have strengthened, and there has been increasing recognition of the importance of the social and structural determinants of health. However, when the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) first conceived of the Invest Health initiative in 2015, this shift in thinking was relatively new. As one national health leader noted, what was unique about Invest Health at the time it was launched “was the vision of connecting community development goals, objectives, values, and language to health and healthcare under the umbrella of social determinants of health.”
It is within this context that Invest Health operated and, as this report finds, contributed to further catalyzing connections between the community development and health and well-being fields, new thinking about the challenges and opportunities in small and midsize cities, and disseminating information on concrete models of projects and programs that contribute to community well-being.