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.

Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone, delivers a keynote speech at the 2012 PLACE MATTERS National Conference in Washington, DC.

Dr. Howard Frumkin, Dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, speaks on making healthy spaces at the PLACE MATTERS 2012 National Conference in Washington, DC.

Dr. Brian Smedley of the Joint Center's Health Policy Institute presents the results of a series of PLACE MATTERS community reports at the 2012 PLACE MATTERS National Conference in Washington, DC.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Health Policy Institute and its PLACE MATTERS Initiative will convene a National Health Equity Conference in Washington on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, to spotlight effective community-based strategies that address all kinds of barriers to good health faced by low-income communities and communities of color.

The conference, with the theme “PLACE MATTERS: Models of Action, Innovation & Collaboration”  will assemble key stakeholders, including grassroots leaders, elected officials, researchers, public health practitioners, policymakers and community organizers.  It will take place at the Renaissance Hotel, 999 Ninth Street NW, Washington.

Download the full press release below.

PLACE MATTERS for health in important ways, according to a growing body of research.  Differences in neighborhood conditions powerfully predict who is healthy, who is sick, and who lives longer.  And because of patterns of residential segregation, these differences are the fundamental causes of health inequities among different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and its Place Matters Teams  are pleased to add to the existing knowledge base with this report, Place Matters for Health: Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All.  The report, supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health and written in conjunction with the Center on Human Needs at the Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Network for Geospatial Health Research, provides a summary of our analyses of the social, economic, and environmental conditions that exist in selected PLACE MATTERS communities and documents their relationship to the health status of residents of these communities.

The overall pattern in our series of Community Health Equity Reports, as this summary makes clear, suggests that we need to tackle the structures and systems that create and perpetuate inequality to fully close racial and ethnic health gaps.   Accordingly, because the Joint Center seeks not only to document these inequities, we are committed to helping remedy them.  

Through our PLACE MATTERS initiative, which is generously supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we are working with leaders in 24 communities around the country to identify and address social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health.  We look forward to continuing to work with leaders these and other communities to ensure that every child, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or place of residence, can enjoy the opportunity to live a healthy, safe, and productive life.

PLACE MATTERS for health in important ways, according to a growing body of research.  Differences in neighborhood conditions powerfully predict who is healthy, who is sick, and who lives longer.  And because of patterns of residential segregation, these differences are the fundamental causes of health inequities among different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is pleased to add to the existing knowledge base with this report, Place Matters for Health in Bernalillo County: Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All, A Report on Health Inequities in Bernalillo County, New Mexico.  The report, supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health and written in conjunction with the Center on Human Needs at the Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Network for Geospatial Health Research, provides a comprehensive analysis of the range of social, economic, and environmental conditions in Bernalillo County and documents their relationship to the health status of the county’s residents.

The study finds that social, economic, and environmental conditions in low-income and non-white neighborhoods make it more difficult for people in these neighborhoods to live healthy lives.

The overall pattern in this report – and those of others that the Joint Center has conducted with other PLACE MATTERS communities – suggests that we need to tackle the structures and systems that create and perpetuate inequality to fully close racial and ethnic health gaps.   Accordingly, because the Joint Center seeks not only to document these inequities, we are committed to helping remedy them.  

Through our PLACE MATTERS initiative, which is generously supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we are working with leaders in 24 communities around the country to identify and address social, economic, and environmental conditions that shape health.  We look forward to continuing to work with leaders in Bernalillo County and other communities to ensure that every child, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or place of residence, can enjoy the opportunity to live a healthy, safe, and productive life.

Our full report is available for download below. English- and Spanish-language executive summaries and an informational brochure are also available.

It is becoming abundantly clear that the opponents of President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act care little about minority health.

David Bositis, senior research director for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, has observed in the {Washington Post} that about 36 percent of African Americans have no health insurance (compared to approximately 12 percent of Caucasians).

“Because Americans of Color suffer from hypertension, diabetes and cancer at twice the rates of Caucasians,” he notes, “insurance companies, when permitted to do so, exclude us more often from coverage.”

“I wonder,” Mr. Bositis asks rhetorically, “why those who are fighting this law do not care about the high death rate and high rates of the illnesses of black Americans?”

Read more at The Afro.

As a result of the racial and economic segregation of Cook County neighborhoods, life expectancy varies along neighborhood lines, according to a study by The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The study found that residents of neighborhoods with an annual median income above $53,000 live almost 14 years longer than those with median incomes below $25,000.

Those with lower income tend to live in less safe neighborhoods with less access to fresh food and quality health care. Of course the segregation splits the city in half. The census statistics also showed that more than a quarter of Cook County census tracts have experienced persistent poverty, "meaning that at least 20% of households have been in poverty for two decades.

Read more at Chicagoist.

It’s been well documented that in the U.S. poverty helps fuels poor health — obesity, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses. And that makes sense, given that more money means better access to quality health care and the ability to afford healthier foods and obtain a gym membership to work out.

But a recent study conducted about people living in Cook County, Illinois, suggests that income doesn’t always explain racial health disparities. According to the report Place Matters for Health in Cook County: Ensuring Opportunities for Good Health for All, researchers from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Study in Washingtonn D.C. found that where you live, especially if your area is racially segregated, is a pretty good predictor of how healthy you will be and how long will you live.

Read more at BET.