October 2018

Advancing Health Equity and Inclusive Growth in Cincinnati

Overview

As home to nine Fortune 500 companies, and new investment in neighborhoods such as Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati is poised for an economic renaissance. But not all residents are benefiting from this recovery. Persistent racial and gender inequities are preventing many residents, particularly women of color, from thriving. This profile illustrates how disparities in income, housing, educational attainment, and many other areas are costing the Cincinnati region billions of dollars in potential economic growth each year. In addition, the accompanying policy brief offers a series of recommendations designed to close some of these gaps. They were developed by PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC, in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Interact for Health, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, and with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Read the profile, policy brief, and fact sheet, and see the press release.

The New York City-based Surdna Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $3 million in support of organizations working to foster just and sustainable communities in the United States.

A zip code is much more than just a five digit number. It can tell you where to send mail, where a person lives and where they work. The impact of that number can also reach far beyond geographic location; it can reveal inequality and the likelihood of upward mobility in different locations. Medical professionals have begun to consider zip code as an indicator of health, well-being and even life expectancy.

Mitch Landrieu, the former Mayor of New Orleans and recipient of the 2018 JFK Profiles in Courage Award for his decision to remove four Confederate monuments from that city, noted on accepting the award that "[c]enturies-old wounds are still raw because they were not healed right in the first place. Here is the essential truth. We are better together than we are apart."

“The diversity of the Latino/Latina community poses unique challenges for clinicians and policymakers,” Cabassa said. “Understanding the sources of heterogeneity, and their association with health, will allow development and implementation of effective, culturally and linguistically appropriate, health services and policies optimally designed to reduce health disparities in our communities.”

Gentrification, referring in this case to the displacement of low-income minority households because of rising property values, is local news in Austin.

In the busy fall season, nonprofit conferences are thick on the ground, but we sometimes wonder what the organizers are thinking when they put them together. Do you have your own thoughts? Please weigh in!

I n his opening keynote for SSIR's 2018 Nonprofit Management InstituteRashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, shared a simple message that captured much of the spirit of the conference: "When oppressed people win, they win for everybody."

"Tracey Ross the Associate Director of the All-in Cities Initiative at Policy Link, a national research and action institute, shared promising practices being utilized in communities participating in Policy Link’s Anti-Displacement Network, including efforts to implement inclusionary zoning, community land trusts and increased legal representation to ensure “just cause” evictions.

"State and local governments play an increasingly important role in infrastructure construction. Each year, they spend at least $250 billion on public infrastructure, including transportation, energy and water/sewer system upgrades. But a recent report by the Emerald Cities Collaborative and PolicyLink shows that infrastructure spending will not automatically "lift all boats," especially in historically marginalized communities."

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