In celebration of Food Day—a nationwide celebration and movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food—the Mid-Mississippi Delta PLACE MATTERS team held two community meetings to discuss the connection between the rise in obesity and lack of affordable, healthy foods in most Delta communities. The Mid Delta PLACE MATTERS team is part of an initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies that builds the capacity of communities to address social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health and health outcomes.

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The Mid Delta PLACE MATTERS team intends to draw attention to the root causes of this obesity crisis: the social, economic, and environmental factors that shape Mississippians’ opportunities to be healthy. Many Delta neighborhoods lack the resources that support easily accessible and affordable healthy eating and active lifestyles.

Download the full press release below.

Dr. Brian Smedley delivers the keynote speech at the Urban Neighborhood Initiative Symposium in Kansas City, MO on October 4, 2012. This video can be found on Vimeo.

Good nutrition can be good business when it comes to providing healthy food options in low-income neighborhoods, according to a national health expert who spoke at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

In comments delivered Thursday, Brian Smedley cited a Pennsylvania tax-incentive program targeted to grocery store developers in areas where meal options are often limited to convenience stores and fast-food restaurants.

“Many of these stores (in Pennsylvania) have achieved a triple bottom line,” said Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C. “That’s why I’m so excited about the potential of these kinds of partnerships to leverage the existing good intentions of our business community and to help them do business in communities where they simply weren’t able to in the past.”

Smedley said Kansas City’s Urban Neighborhood Initiative (UNI) is exactly the type of community partnership that can make such strides.

Smedley’s keynote address came as leaders of the initiative unveiled their action plan to an audience of about 250 civic leaders, community activists, and government officials.


Read more at Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

After months of community meetings, city business leaders today presented a draft action plan for improving life in the Troost Avenue corridor.

The next step – implementing changes – will start in January in what advocates say is a unique public-private effort to change life between Troost and 71 Highway, 22nd Street to 52nd Street.

The action plan for the Urban Neighborhood Initiative (UNI) was presented today to about 250 community leaders, neighborhood advocates and business representatives at the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City.

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Brian Smedley, director of the Health Policy Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C., praised the UNI effort in a recent speech and talked about the problems of racial and ethnic disparities.

Just in health care alone, he said, black and Hispanic people who live in poor areas get lifetimes of lower quality care than whites, resulting in millions of dollars in public health costs and millions more in lost worker productivity.


Read more at Midtown KC Post.

The Joint Center's Health Policy Institute held its second PLACE MATTERS National Health Equity Conference on September 5, 2012, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC. Keynote speakers included Dr. Howard Frumkin of the University of Washington, Angela Glover Blackwell, Esq., of PolicyLink, and Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children's Zone.

Dr. Brian Smedley will be the keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA) 2012 Annual Meeting and Conference, entitled "Growing the Political Will for Prevention and Health Equity" on Friday, November 16, 2012. He will address what it will take to ignite and sustain a health equity movement that can produce real change in—and real opportunities for health– here in Massachusetts and across the country. The meeting will also feature expanded networking opportunities, exhibitors representing grassroots organizations and local businesses, MPHA community award presentations, and updates on how you can get involved in the work to drive statewide changes for healthier, more equitable communities.

For more information on the meeting or to register, please click the REGISTER button to your right.

Dr. Brian Smedley will serve as a panelist during a discussion entitled "Health Equity: Are We Making Progress? Through a Social Justice, Women's, Persons with Disabilities and LGBTQ Lens" at the American Public Health Association's Annual Meeting and Expo on Monday, October 29, 2012. Dr. Smedley will be discussing "Tackling Health Inequalities Through a Focus on Place: The Role of Residential Segregation."

America spends more than $2.5 trillion on health care. If we could eliminate health inequalities, America could save more than a $1 trillion in excessive health care expenditures and indirect costs. We've been spending our resources on the illness model, instead of investing our resources on the determinants of health - jobs, education, physically and environmentally safe neighborhoods - that have the potential to bring us closer to achieving health equity. To make progress, we must address the determinants of health, and eliminate discrimination of all forms - racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and income inequality - from the start. Because it is important to look at health equity through more than one lens, we have organized a panel to discuss health inequalities and health equity through a race/ethnicity and social/environmental justice lens, a women’s lens, a persons with disabilities lens, and a LGBTQ lens.

Click here for more information on Dr. Smedley's panel. For more information on the 2012 APHA conference, including registration, click the REGISTER button to your right.

While studies have demonstrated that men are important to maternal and child health, expectant fathers lack specific roles in pregnancy and childbirth. In this article from the September/October 2012 edition of Trends in Urology and Men's Health, Dr. Jermane Bond examines pathways to improve paternal involvement in childbirth and family health. Men and expectant fathers have until recently been excluded from pregnancy and childbirth. Retrospective studies have been largely reassuring that fathers play a vital role in child health and development; however, little is known regarding the role of the expectant father in pregnancy outcomes. Though, the little that we do know about paternal involvement and pregnancy outcomes suggests that paternal involvement can have a positive influence on maternal health behaviors during pregnancy.

Dr. Jermane Bond was commissioned to write the American Journal of Public Health’s “Editor’s Choice” for their October publication. The piece, “Pathways to Optimal Health: A Life Course Framework for Adolescents” discusses the life course perspective (LCP) as an ideal framework for understanding population-level health behaviors and maternal and child health. Glen H. Elder defined the LCP as “a pattern of socially defined, age graded events and roles that is subject to historical changes in culture and social structure.” (Elder GH. Children of the Great Depression: Social Change in Life Experience. 25th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview; 1999.) Dr. Bond believes that we should use the LCP to shape our health goals for adolescents, because the health-related behaviors that we instill in our children in early life can shape stable patterns of future well-being.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) welcomes all HHS staff and their families to the 3rd Annual Infant Mortality Awareness 5K Run/Walk/Roll. The event takes place on September 27, 2012 and Dr. Jermane Bond will be the keynote speaker. Infant mortality is one of the most important indicators of the health of a nation and infant mortality rates for certain populations, including African American, Puerto Rican, and American Indian/Alaskan Native infants remain above the U.S. average of 6.7 per 1,000 live births. The event will begin in front of Building 1 on the NIH main campus at 11:00 a.m. as part of National Infant Mortality Awareness Month. This event aims to raise awareness about infant mortality and highlight current research and future efforts to further reduce infant mortality in the United States during a run/walk/roll around the NIH campus. For more information visit the National Institutes of Health.