Health and place are inextricably linked. People are healthy when the places they live in support health. But the systems that shape communities and health are complex, from how food is grown, processed, distributed, and sold to how neighborhoods are built to the transportation systems that serve them. Creating healthy, equitable communities requires the broad expertise and influence of funders, advocates, and practitioners working across multiple fields to change these systems. This webinar explored the importance of engaging partners that extend beyond health. We heard about initiatives that involve collaboration across a broad spectrum of fields, including health, urban planning, transportation, food and sustainable agriculture, and community/economic development.

Featured Speakers:

• David D. Fukuzawa, Program Director, Kresge Foundation (powerpoint)
• Chetrice Gillon, Special Project Launch Manager, Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion, Bureau of Substance, Prevention Treatment and Recovery (powerpoint)
• Jill Fuglister, Co-Director, Coalition for a Livable Future (powerpoint)

"Equity: Just and fair inclusion. An equitable society is one in which all can participate and prosper. The goals of equity must be to create conditions that allow all to reach their full potential. In short, equity creates a path from hope to change." - Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink. Creating healthy places is critical to improving the overall health of Americans. Our neighborhoods must allow people the opportunity to make healthy decisions. Yet, not all places are created equal. Some neighborhoods have safe places for children to play outside, good schools and proximity to healthy food outlets like grocery stores and farmers markets. Other neighborhoods have only liquor stores, and lack sidewalks and parks to play in. Those neighborhoods lacking in healthy opportunities are where low-income people and communities of color live. They are also where people experience the worst health outcomes. Yet, all people should have the opportunity to live healthy lives. To create healthy people it's critical to focus on low-income people and communities of color whose environments often do not allow for healthy choices. In this session, participants learned how equity-based strategies and principles can form the basis of environmental policy change.

Featured Speakers:

• Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO, PolicyLink (no powerpoint)
• Linda Jo Doctor, Program Officer, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (powerpoint)
• Robert Garcia, Founder and Executive Director, City Project (powerpoint)

Creating healthy places where people can be healthy requires broad-based policy and environmental change. Developing these changes requires effective communication with others about the importance of healthy, equitable communities. Social science research demonstrates specific techniques for successfully conveying messages. For example, for most people in the U.S., the starting point for change of any kind is at the individual level. But when audiences are reminded early in the communication of the influence environments have on health, they are receptive to messages about policies that can change those environments. This webinar addressed effective communication strategies to advance the reality of healthy people in healthy places. Panelists discussed framing, language and techniques to develop messages that can garner support for policies and environmental change strategies. Panelists specifically addressed the challenges of talking about equity.

Featured Speakers:

• Lori Dorfman, Berkeley Media Studies Group (powerpoint)
• Phil Steger, ISAIAH (powerpoint)

The majority of efforts to improve health focus on healthcare and programmatic and educational strategies. Yet, environmental and policy changes can create long-term sustainable opportunities for health. In the past several years, advocates from multiple fields across the country are implementing innovative projects to foster policy and environmental changes that help create healthy places where families and children can lead healthier lives. These strategies are fairly new, so how do we know if they are working? Ongoing tracking, measurement, and assessment can provide short-term feedback to guide and improve existing efforts. Evaluation can also help to identify effective strategies and tools for sustained use over the long term. In this webinar, panelists will discuss techniques for effectively evaluating policy and environmental change efforts to create healthy people in healthy places. It will also touch on strategy evaluation to promote equity and multi-field partnerships. Panelists will draw on specific evaluation examples and discuss challenges and lessons learned.

Featured Speakers:

• Dana Keener Mast, ICF Macro (powerpoint)
• Steven Ridini, Health Resources in Action (powerpoint)

The Opportunity Agenda crafted messaging advice for changing media coverage and public perceptions of African-American men and boys based on existing research and years of work at the intersection of media, communications and racial justice.

This memo is intended to assist those working to reduce stereotypes and expand opportunity for black males as well as those concerned with journalistic excellence and socially responsible entertainment media.

Change is needed in these areas because research and experience find persistently distorted media depictions of black males that contribute to negative stereotypes, unfair treatment, and unequal opportunity in areas ranging from employment to education to criminal justice and beyond. 

This brief includes three schedules from ExpandED Schools, highlighting the new classes, supports, and activities available to students thanks to the longer day and community assets in the school.

To support sustaining local leader’s efforts, to achieve collective impact by improving the educational and developmental outcomes for poor children in America, the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink (PNI) is working to attract additional investment to network member’s Promise Neighborhood cradle-to-career continuum of solutions. Network members meeting ALL of the criteria described below may submit requests for funding to their peers.

In the summer of 2014, The Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink (PNI) introduced model legislation to be used at the state and local level to secure support for cradle to career efforts. The Cradle to Career Act of 201_ secures funding for innovative, results-based, and comprehensive continua of solutions that connect children and youth to a high quality education and key health and social services that prepare them to succeed in college and in their careers. The legislation was intentionally drafted in a manner that it may be used to support various strategies that advance educational outcomes from cradle through college and career.

Written by CBP – PBS Ready to Learn Initiative in collaboration with the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink, this guide offers a range of high-quality PBS and Ready to Learn resources for children, families, and educators that are organized to correspond with the Promise Neighborhoods results.

This tool helps a community determine its readiness for expanded learning in four areas: Leadership, Capacity, Sustainability, and Data Systems.