Oral

Designing sustainable strategies that effectively address the Social Determinants of Health remains an elusive goal for public health, philanthropy, and academia. The realization that one’s zip code may be a better predictor of health outcomes than one’s genetic code has lead to a renewed commitment to comprehensive place-based strategies as a vehicle for undoing the legacy of discriminatory institutional policies and thereby reversing health inequities. The Building Healthy Communities (BHC) Initiative of the California Endowment, a private statewide health foundation, is an ambitious $1 billion, 10-year place-based initiative designed to create transformative community change by improving the physical, social, economic, and service environments that constrain health in 14 low income California communities. BHC is inspired by the fundamental principle that the people most impacted by poor health outcomes must be centrally involved in crafting the solutions. Complimenting the focus on place is robust statewide policy advocacy infrastructure that supports local and statewide efforts to advance health across the state. A fundamental premise of BHC is that transformative change will come through five key “drivers of change”: 1) building resident social, political, and economic power, 2) fostering youth leadership, 3) enhancing collaborative efficacy, 4) leveraging partnerships, and 5) creating a new narrative about health. This session will provide an orientation to the BHC initiative with in-depth focus on two core components of the BHC initiative: building community power to sustain health opportunities and creating a new health narrative. Discussions will address changing the power dynamic in communities so those most impacted by poor social, economic, and health conditions can shape their solutions, and creating a new narrative that represents a holistic view of what determines health. TCE senior leadership and community partners will also share the successes and challenges of the BHC efforts.

Session Objectives: Describe The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities place-based initiative underway in 14 places in California. Discuss in detail and with examples, the power building and creating a new narrative components of the initiative. Identify lessons from BHC that can be replicated and scaled-up, and how that might be achieved in other states.