Health Equity Within Reach: Understanding and Capturing the Power of Place through Community Engagement

Since 2007 the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies had led an initiative, Place Matters, that seeks to build the capacity of leaders and communities around the country to identify and address social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health and health inequities.  This presentation will describe the Place Matters initiative and provide examples of how multi-sector teams working in 27 jurisdictions around the country engage with communities to address the concentration of health risks and relative lack of health-enhancing resources in highly-segregated, high-poverty communities.  Our research finds as much as a 30-year difference in life expectancy across zip codes and census tracts within the same jurisdiction.  In response, Place Matters teams are working to advance innovative policy strategies that promote health and equity in all policies, building on sources of strength and resiliency within communities.  This presentation will discuss specific examples of policies being implemented, along with steps necessary to build public and policymaker support for place-based health equity movements.  Key elements of this work to be discussed include strategies for community engagement/mobilization, communication to target audiences, identification of evidence-based policies, and research to assess community-level risks and resiliency.