Building Healthy Communities through Community Engagement and Empowerment

The research is undeniable. Our health is linked to employment, education, economic opportunity, housing, the environment, and more. Indeed, when it comes to health, place matters, zip code matters, and community empowerment matters. That’s why, in 2010, the Building Healthy Communities (BHC) initiative was launched, an ambitious $1 billion 10-year strategic plan designed to improve the physical, social, and economic conditions that promote health in California. The initiative includes investments in 14 communities across the state, as well as statewide policy advocacy that supports local and statewide efforts to promote health. Our goal? The healthiest state in a generation, by creating places where children are healthy, safe and ready to learn. Towards that goal, the initiative partners with the community to improve employment opportunities, education, housing, neighborhood safety, unhealthy environmental conditions, access to healthy foods and more. The vision is to build healthy communities, from the “community up,” so community-based health programs and residents/councils/collaborations/consortia have the potential to work together to craft their own vision for 2020, and their community-owned plan for how to get there. Rather than impose goals/metrics on the community, success is being measured by the community’s ability to reach their self-defined milestones. Towards that vision, each community is transforming their community by choosing their own outcomes for their community health. Together, they are role model, and a force to be reckoned with, as their whole is greater than the sum of their parts, and they build a national model/movement /vision for community health.