The report provides a comprehensive analysis of how neighborhood differences in a range of social, economic and environmmental conditions are linked to health outcomes in the San Joaquin Valley. It finds that the conditions in low-income and non-white neighborhoods make it more difficut for people in these neighborhoods to live healthy lives.

A summary document is also available in English or Spanish.

In a study released this week, two Manhattan Institute researchers heralded the “end of the segregated century.” Harvard professor Edward Glaeser and Duke professor Jacob Vigdor showed that African American segregation levels have now declined to their lowest point since 1920, just after the beginning of the “Great Migration” of rural sharecroppers from the South to Northern industrial metropolitan regions.

From 2010 Census data, professors Glaeser and Vigdor calculate changes in what sociologists term “dissimilarity indices.” They find a national dissimilarity (or segregation) rate of about 55 percent for African Americans—in other words, “only” 55 percent of African Americans would now have to move to neighborhoods with more non-blacks in order to evenly distribute the black population throughout all neighborhoods in their metropolitan areas. This is a substantial decline from the segregation level of about 80 percent in 1970.

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Another recent study of census data published by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies finds that over 20 percent of all African Americans now live in “high poverty” neighborhoods, unchanged from 2000. More than 40 percent of poor African Americans now live in high-poverty neighborhoods, compared to 15 percent of poor whites who live in such neighborhoods. Poor blacks are therefore nearly three times as likely to be “truly disadvantaged” as poor whites. (The Joint Center defines a “high poverty” neighborhood as one where 30 percent or more of the residents have incomes below the poverty line, but this definition can be misleading: The poverty line is very low, and neighborhoods with poverty rates of greater than 30 percent also inevitably house large numbers of residents whose incomes are barely above the poverty line, and whom most would also consider to be severely economically disadvantaged.)


Read more at the Economic Policy Institute.

The Eighth Annual Jean Mills Health Symposium, entitled Enhancing Community Health in North Carolina:  Looking in the Mirror, will be held on Friday, February 3, 2012, at the Greenville Hilton in Greenville, North Carolina. Sponsored by the College of Allied Health Sciences in collaboration with the East Carolina University Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, Pitt Memorial Foundation and Eastern AHEC, the Symposium will describe the history of health disparities interventions and research in eastern North Carolina and critically reflect on the progress in increasing access to care and reducing disparities for minority populations and the effectiveness of the interventions.

The Health Policy Institute's Dr. Brian Smedley will be providing the keynote address at the Symposium.

For more information, please see this symposium brochure.

The second Summit on Quality In Home Visiting Programs will be held on February 15 and 16 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the Pew Center on the States, Every Child Succeeds, and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Summit will offer a forum to learn about the latest developments in the field and to strategize about how to ensure that home visiting investments are supporting evidence-based models backed by strong policies and embedded in early childhood systems.

Dr. Jermane Bond of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute will be presenting at a breakout panel entitled Home Visiting for Families and Fathers on February 15 at 3:45 PM.

For more information on this event, please visit the Summit's homepage.

An overview of the Joint Center's PLACE MATTERS program.

Maya Rockeymore interviews Brian Smedley and discusses healthcare reform and issues of healthcare disparities among racial and ethnic minority populations. View the video at GlobalPolicy.TV.

The National Academy of Social Insurance will hold its 24th annual conference, entitled Social Insurance in a Market Economy: Obstacles and Opportunities, on January 26 and 27, 2012, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. This gathering will explore how a strong, competitive economy requires strong, innovative social insurance programs – and vice versa.

Dr. Brian Smedley of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute will take part in a session entitled Health Care: The Quest for Higher Quality at More Affordable Cost at 1 PM on Thursday, January 26. On Friday, January 27, the Civic Engagement and Governance Institute's Dr. Wilhelmina Leigh will speak at a session entitled Changing the Conversation: Messaging Social Security.

For more information on the conference, please visit the National Academy of Social Insurance.

As part of the University of Michigan's 25th Annual Martin Luther King Day Symposium, Dr. Brian Smedley of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute will make a Health Sciences Program presentation. The presentation, entitled Building Stronger Communities for Better Health: The Geography of Equity and Human Rights, will be given on Monday, January 16, 2012 in the Dow Auditorium of the University of Michigan Medical Center.

For more information on Dr. Smedley's presentation and the rest of the MLK Symposium, please visit the University of Michigan website.

The Center for Health Equity at the University of Maryland's School of Public Health is holding a Collegium of Scholars entitled Building Stronger Communities for Better Health: Moving From Science to Policy and Practice on Wednesday, December 14 from 12 PM to 1:30 PM.

The Joint Center's Dr. Brian Smedley will be the featured speaker at this event.

For more information, visit the Maryland Center for Health Equity.