Healthy Communities Conference

Exploring the Intersection of Community Development and Health

Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Martin Building, July 13, 2010

Overcoming Obstacles to Health

This RWJF report to the Commission to Build a Healthier America provides a profile of the current state of health in America, focusing specifically on the role that social factors like income, education, and race and ethnicity play in Americans' health and the areas that hold promise for improving the opportunities for all Americans to live healthier and more productive lives.

Community Development Investment Review

Can community development finance help "bend the cost curve" for health care? That is one of the questions motivating this issue of the Review. In light of the insights and research from the authors in this volume, the answer is a resounding yes. The reality is that people who live in supportive, connected, and economically-thriving communities tend to be healthier. Healthier communities would lead to billions of dollars of social savings from fewer visits to the emergency room, fewer chronic diseases, and a population more capable of making a contribution as healthy productive citizens.

Beyond Health Care: New Directions to a Healthier America

This report describes the Commission to Build a Healthier America's work and provides recommendations for moving forward to ensure all Americans have an opportunity to lead healthier lives.

DC Metro System: Disparities in Health

This map shows life span disparities across the DC Metro system, reflecting differences in wealth, education and environment across all community residents. The differences are even more dramatic - sometimes double - if you compare black and white residents.

Neurons to Neighborhoods: Executive Summary

Commissioned by the Institute of Medicine, From Neurons to Neighborhoods is the product of a two-and-a-half-year project during which 17 individuals, as a committee, evaluated and integrated the current science of early childhood development.

Unbanked by Choice

This is the first report from a multi-phase survey of 1,000 banked and 1,000 unbanked households in greater Los Angeles, randomly selected from eight low-income study areas for in-person interviews at several intervals over the course of a year (July 2009 to July 2010).

Healthy Communities: Issue Briefs

These issue briefs provide snapshot analysis of how housing, education, race, neighborhoods, workplaces, and early childhood experiences affect health outcomes.

The Poor Pay More - Poverty's High Cost to Health

This report describes many of the ways in which being poor is bad for one's health and points to policies that have the potential for restoring the prospect of good health to the lives of the poor.

Banking and Community Perspectives

This issue of Banking and Community Perspectives focuses on nonlegislative efforts to foster healthier communities, particularly in low- and moderate-income areas. These efforts are led by both public and private organizations across the Federal Reserve's Eleventh District.