The Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center of the Urban Institute presents data on poverty, where it is found, and who is affected by it. This presentation was originally given at the 2011 PLACE MATTERS National Conference.

Slides can be downloaded by clicking the link below.

Representative Donna Christensen (D-VI) explores the connection between health equity and social equity and how policy can help end health disparities. This presentation was given as part of the 2011 PLACE MATTERS National Conference.

Slides can be downloaded by clicking the link below.

Members of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health review a study on the effect of segregation, including neighborhood racial composition and concentration of poverty, on health. This presentation was originally given at the 2011 PLACE MATTERS National Conference.

Slides can be downloaded by clicking the link below.

This fact sheet explains the Health Policy Institute's PLACE MATTERS program, an initiative which seeks to improve the health of participating communities by addressing conditions in the natural environment, built environment, and social environment that lead to poor health.

This publication is available for download by clicking the link below.

After a decade-long rise in concentrated poverty, one in 11 residents of metropolitan areas now live in communities where at least 30 percent of their neighbors are poor, according to a pair of studies unveiled today by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

The reports, A Lost Decade: Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban Crisis of the 2000s, produced in collaboration with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Racial Segregation on Health Inequalities, underscore the links between poverty and racial segregation in metropolitan neighborhoods and the health of the people who live in them.

They were released as the Joint Center convened a Place Matters National Conference that is focusing on the relationship between place and health, especially as it pertains to racial and ethnic health inequality.

Read more at USA Today, The Boston Globe, TheStreet.com, and Optimum Online.

This article was previously available at sacbee.com, Marketwatch.com, and Yahoo! News.

How well you live depends a lot on where you live.

Two studies released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies this week reveal that segregation continues to play an important role in health inequities, and concentrated poverty has increased the number of people in high poverty neighborhoods by nearly 5 million.

The reports, "A Lost Decade: Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban Crisis of the 2000s" and "Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Racial Segregation on Health Inequalities," were released at the Joint Center’s “Place Matters” national conference in Washington, D.C., which focused on the relationship between location and health, particularly with regard to racial and ethnic health inequities.

Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.

After a decade-long rise in concentrated poverty, one in 11 residents of metropolitan areas now live in communities where at least 30 percent of their neighbors are poor, according to a pair of studies unveiled today by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

The reports, A Lost Decade: Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban Crisis of the 2000s, produced in collaboration with the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Racial Segregation on Health Inequalities, underscore the links between poverty and racial segregation in metropolitan neighborhoods and the health of the people who live in them.

They were released as the Joint Center convened a PLACEMATTERS National Conference that is focusing on the relationship between place and health, especially as it pertains to racial and ethnic health inequality.

Read more by downloading the full press release below.

This study looks at the relationship between the level of segregation in metro areas in the U.S. and the health of the people who live in these communities. Metro areas with the highest levels of segregation have the largest health inequities (e.g., people of color will live far shorter lives than whites).

One of the hardest things that I have ever done was to leave my family practice of 21 years and my patients to enter the world of national politics. I practiced pretty much full-time, right up to winning my primary.

However, I left with a commitment to make a difference in the health care and health status of communities like mine which have long suffered from the impact of health inequities. It has been my main focus since coming to Washington.

In a country of plenty such as ours -- one founded on principles of equality and justice -- that African-Americans and Native Americans in particular, but all people of color in general, suffer disproportionately from disease and die in excess numbers prematurely from preventable causes is inexcusable and unacceptable.

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In addition to the health impact of health disparities, there also is a cost to everyone from the existence of these and other disparities.  In fact, a study launched by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that the three-year estimate of the direct and indirect medical costs of health disparities was $1.24 trillion.

Read more at The Huffington Post.

(via Community-Campus Partnerships for Health)

July 14, 2011 – Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) and the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service (CCHERS) are pleased to announce they have been awarded funding from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) for the National Community Partner Forum, “Realizing the Promise of Community-Engaged Health Disparities Research.” Designed “by and for” community partners involved in health disparities research, the forum will examine and address the challenges and issues they face, enhance their knowledge and skills, and build a network for ongoing shared learning, mentoring and professional development. Three critical questions will guide the forum:

• How do we ensure that communities most affected by health disparities are at the tables that decide what research gets conducted, how and by whom?
• How do we support communities most affected by health disparities to conduct and manage research?
• How do we ensure that social justice is central to community-engaged research?

To learn more about the forum, or the CCPH and CCHERS, access the press release, here.