Health
and Community Factors
PolicyLink explores the intersection
between community factors and health outcomes with a focus on understanding
the social, economic and traditional factors that are connected to health
disparities. Our work includes policy development, research including targeted
interviews and site visits, and the use of geographic information system
mapping to better understand the relationships between community factors
and health.
PolicyLink began examining the connection between health and community in 2000 by assessing community participation as a key component in reducing infant mortality in nine federally funded Healthy Start Programs. This research resulted in the publication of Community Involvement in the Federal Healthy Start Program, which found that community involvement played a significant role in changing individual behaviors, enhancing program components, and contributing to a transformation of community life.
Healthy Food Retailing
Across the nation, programs increasing access to healthy, affordable food are revitalizing communities and contributing to better health. The PolicyLink report, Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities through Food Retailing and the Healthy Food Retailing tool in the Equitable Development Toolkit discuss options for increasing access by developing new grocery stores, improving the selection and quality of food in existing smaller stores, starting and sustaining farmers’ markets, and other options. In 2006, PolicyLink is building on this work by bringing together stakeholders to identify policy opportunities in California to improve access to healthy food in low-income communities of color.
Healthy Eating Active Communities
In March 2005 PolicyLink partnered with The California
Endowment to assist in their new Healthy Eating Active Communities
initiative to improve the food and physical activity environments
for school age children in six California communities. The goal
of this initiative is to create momentum for widespread changes
in the policies and practices that contribute to the rising rates
of childhood obesity. This four-year initiative will include collaboration
with school districts, public health departments, community organizations
and after-school programs.
PolicyLink will focus on assisting these communities in addressing conditions in neighborhoods that contribute to obesity. Our primary objectives are to:
PolicyLink is providing technical assistance and training to asthma coalitions across California in policy, advocacy, and communications. Our work includes helping to identify and advocate for policy changes needed to improve environmental conditions, convening statewide partners to develop effective strategies, providing one-on-one strategic assistance to increase capacity for policy and communication skills, and engaging others to strengthen asthma partnerships and collaborations. www.calasthma.org
PolicyLink / Joint Center Research Project
In a 2004 partnership with The Health Policy Institute at The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, PolicyLink engaged in a study, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, designed to better understand the most pressing issues facing African American and Latino communities in their fight to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies seeks to inform and illuminate the nation's major public policy debates through research, analysis, and dissemination of information that will improve the socioeconomic status of black Americans, expand their participation in political and public policy arenas and promote communication and relationships across racial and ethnic lines.
Through a review of the literature and interviews with African American and Latino community health leaders and elected officials, PolicyLink and the Joint Center produced four issue briefs that summarized key interview findings, shed light on national promising practices and suggested policy changes that could reduce these health disparities. Interview results confirmed PolicyLink fundamental beliefs that the social, economic, and physical environments of local communities—environments shaped by overarching racial inequalities—affect health and contribute to health disparities in deep and long lasting ways.
The reports address four critical aspects of health disparities’ adverse effects on African Americans and Latinos: overall community factors that influence health; disproportionate rates of asthma in these communities; neighborhood conditions that discourage healthy eating and physical activity; and the unique disparities facing Latino immigrants.