Environmental Justice and Brownfields Redevelopment: Leveraging Opportunities to Achieve Community and Vision Health and Sustainability

There is a growing body of evidence which documents the disproportionate impact of environmental, economic and health burdens faced by minority, low-income, tribal and other disadvantaged populations. Disadvantaged communities are the focus of significant environmental and economic initiatives. These extend from federal interagency initiatives such as the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities to agency specific efforts, such as brownfields redevelopment. A significant purpose of these efforts is to leverage resources and capacity to promote environmental justice and healthy and sustainable communities. It is essential that health professionals become aware of these opportunities and use them to effectuate positive change in community vision/eye health. This presentation will increase understanding by vision health care providers of the environmental and economic initiatives that can be leveraged to improve vision health, the relationship between these initiatives and vision health practice, and measures that eye health practitioners can take to reduce high rates of eye diseases among vulnerable populations.