WASHINGTON, DC – The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will release a report, “Place Matters for Health in Baltimore:  Ensuring Equitable Opportunities for Good Health.”

The report documents a 30-year difference in life expectancy across census tracts in the city.  Census tracts with a high proportion of people of color, the report finds, disproportionately suffer from a lack of investment in the opportunity structures that help people to be healthy, such as high-quality schools and housing.  Conversely, these communities tend to host a disproportionate concentration of health risks, such as environmental degradation, vendors selling unhealthy products, and unsafe streets.

The report offers a number of policy strategies to address these neighborhood-level health risks.  Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) will comment on the report.

For full details click the link below.

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.

WASHINGTON, DC—Martin Luther King, Jr. (WA) County Executive Dow Constantine has released the  first annual Equity and Social Justice Report, which documents the county’s progress toward creating fairness and opportunity in the lives of all of its residents.   The report notes that despite the county’s exceptional quality of life, strong economy, and overall good health of county residents, not everyone benefits from these opportunities.  The county’s Equity and Social Justice Ordinance, the first of its kind in the country, requires the county to take active steps to remedy these inequities.

“The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies congratulates King County and its leadership for taking bold steps to identify and eliminate inequities in the county that are based on skin color, place of residence, and income,” said Ralph B. Everett, President and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.  “The report released today confirms the county’s commitment to equity and social justice and points to steps that the county can take to improve life opportunities for all.”

The King County Strategic Plan establishes the principle of "fair and just" intentionally in all the county does in order to achieve equitable opportunities for all people and communities.  The effort embeds the “fair and just” principle as a core element in goals, objectives and strategies across county government.  County ordinance 16948, unanimously passed by the County Council in October 2010, establishes definitions and directs implementation steps to achieve the fair and just principle. 

To view the report visit the King County website, here.  The official King County press release can be viewed here.