In each of our issue areas, strategies and tools have been created to assist in implementing creative solutions to the complex issues involving community factors and health. For example:
A tool in the Equitable Development Toolkit that focuses on strategies to increase access to retail outlets that sell nutritious, affordable food in low-income urban and rural communities.
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.
The Influence of Community Factors on Health: An Annotated Bibliography contains summaries of over 150 articles, reports, and books on how community factors affect health. This annotated bibliography provides insight into the ways that researchers have investigated community effects on health, their findings, and the program and policy implications that researchers have drawn from their work. The bibliography is also available as a searchable web version. The web version can be used to spark new ideas for programs and policies to improve community health, and for research that can be used in reports and policy campaigns.
In Fighting Childhood Asthma: How Communities Can Win, two tools were created to increase awareness about the type of asthma funding and legislation available nationwide. Funding by intervention type lists topics ranging from clinical strategies and community education, to research and policy analysis (see pg 47-55). A summary of California State asthma legislation is outlined, along with a scan of legislative bills being considered by other states and a table of bills outlined by themes (see pg 57-71).
In our health disparities work, a framework of community factors that affect health was created. In Reducing Health Disparities Through a Focus on Communities, PolicyLink introduces a table, Conceptual Framework of Community Effects on Health (see chart on page 14), to understand individual health in the context of socioeconomic factors, neighborhood conditions, structural factors, social supports, racial and cultural norms, and the availability of services and opportunities. In addition to assessing community risk factors, the framework also sheds light on some of the important "protective factors" that serve as a cushion for communities facing complex social, economic, and political issues.
The health disparities report also includes strategies for reducing disparities and strategies for policy development and action (see pg 25-29). Examples of some of the recommendations are:
Regional Development and Physical Activity: Issues and Strategies for Promoting Health Equity explores health disparities and the connection between development patterns, physical activity, and poor health. Recommendations for improving health through increased physical activity and improved community infrastructure are outlined and include:
Community Involvement in the Federal Healthy Start Program, contains a comprehensive chart developed by PolicyLink to assist in understanding the variety and value of community involvement, the challenges of sustaining community involvement, and the factors that contribute to well-functioning community consortia and broad community participation. The chart is divided into three sections: