Washington (DC) Profile

Team Profile Summary

The Washington, DC PLACE MATTERS Team, as part of the PLACE MATTERS intiative, is taking a different, upstream approach to health equity. The team's vision is to see that "DC is a place where health equity is prioritized in all policies and where we live no longer determines how healthy we are." However, rather than focusing on treating individuals, the DC Place Matters team works with the community to develop and implement strategies and policies that focus on fundamental causes and systemic roots of the health issue to promote equitable health in DC. The team's mission statement is to "[focus] on creating equitable and healthy neighborhoods through connecting long-term planning with everyday concerns."

The DC Place Matters Team is focused on creating a community-driven Culture of Wellness. This focus was bolstered by data emphasizing the particular dangers faced by District residents from the prevalence of obesity, and its role in the many chronic health conditions they faced, especially diabetes, hypertension, asthma, various cardiovascular challenges, and cancers. The DC team is committed to ensuring that the population, which has been most adversely impacted by poverty, joblessness, poor housing, and other social determinants, benefits from - rather than be replaced by - these changes ensuing from gentrification, the accompanying economic boom and other structural changes currently underway.

Team Profile Details

Problem Statement

The 2007 release of “F as in Fat”, a report of the Alliance for America’s Health, identifying District youth as having the highest rates of obesity in the country, provided an important catalyst that prompted Department support for staff efforts to build a broad base of support for addressing the obesity crisis and likely Council funding for same. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity constitute a healthcare burden that directly and/or indirectly affects the majority of residents in the District of Columbia. The incidence of these chronic diseases has grown to epidemic proportions, and the District’s community has been affected at higher rates than the nation as a whole.

More than 160,000 residents have cardiovascular disease.
Approximately 35,000 residents have diabetes.
Over half of the District’s population is overweight with 115,000 of those residents being obese.

Team Objectives

Build solidarity with community, seeing them as the most valuable resource.
Create a collective consciousness around fundamental issues (ex: education, economic development, poverty, racism) through engaging all sectors in the development of policy.
Ensure the equitable implementation of policies through accountability.

Community Partners (in alphabetical order):

American Cancer Society, District of Columbia South Atlantic Division
Consumer Health Foundation
CORE Health
DC ACORN
DC Department of Health Community Health Administration Bureau of Nutrition & Physical Fitness (NPF), Child and Adolescent School Health (CASH)
DC – HHS Partnership Office
DC Hunger Solutions (DCHS) of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
Metropolitan DC Health Consortium (MDCHC)
Summit Health Institute for Research and Education
The Washington Informer Newspaper
War on Obesity Coalition
WPFW Pacifica Radio, 89.3FM

For more information and to become involved, please contact: