"Equity: Just and fair inclusion. An equitable society is one in which all can participate and prosper. The goals of equity must be to create conditions that allow all to reach their full potential. In short, equity creates a path from hope to change." - Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink. Creating healthy places is critical to improving the overall health of Americans. Our neighborhoods must...

Creating healthy places where people can be healthy requires broad-based policy and environmental change. Developing these changes requires effective communication with others about the importance of healthy, equitable communities. Social science research demonstrates specific techniques for successfully conveying messages. For example, for most people in the U.S., the starting point for...

The majority of efforts to improve health focus on healthcare and programmatic and educational strategies. Yet, environmental and policy changes can create long-term sustainable opportunities for health. In the past several years, advocates from multiple fields across the country are implementing innovative projects to foster policy and environmental changes that help create healthy places...

As cities come back, leaders must bake equity and inclusion into their growth strategies. This framing paper for the All-In Cities initiative, released at the 2015 Equity Summit in Los Angeles, shares cross-cutting practices and an eight-point policy framework to build equitable, thriving cities. See the report here.

The Convergence Partnership responds to the passage of the farm bill and programs to improve access to healthy food. The farm bill includes the authorization of $125 million for the national Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) that helps revitalize communities by bringing in new, vibrant healthy food retail and by creating and preserving quality jobs for local residents. 

The Bay Area is booming, but a rising tide economy is not lifting up its low-income communities and communities of color. As communities of color continue to drive growth and change in the region, addressing wide racial inequities and ensuring people of color can fully participate as workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators is an urgent priority. Our analysis finds that the regional economy...

The Cooperative Fund of New England  has played a leading role in financing the Northeast’s cooperative food movement. As a CDFI it has served as a financer, lender, and advisor to nearly every food co-op in the area.

Cooperatives differ from traditional businesses in that they are jointly owned by, and operated for the benefit of, the people using their services. A cooperative’s profits are...