This is the first in a series of briefs that describe the changes, insights, and lessons when arts and cultural strategies are deployed in service of comprehensive community development and planning. During ArtPlace America's Community Development Investments initiative, six participating organizations developed creative placemaking projects that could help them more effectively achieve their missions. PolicyLink conducted a research and documentation project to measure the progress, immediate outcomes, and impacts of those projects. This brief examines how these organizations learned to work with artists and develop collaborative practices.

Explore more about our research and documentation project at communitydevelopment.art.

In California last year, the state intercepted over $300 million in child support payments that should have gone to low-income children and their families. Every year, hundreds of thousands of poor children across the state receive just a fraction of the child support payments made by their parents. That’s because, despite having the fifth largest economy in the world, California takes all but the first $50 of every child support payment made to children who receive public benefits and uses it to reimburse the government for the cost of providing those benefits. This report was a collaborative effort with organizations such as the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and Western Center on Law & Poverty to raise awareness of the unfair system that deprives poor children of critical resources, particularly children of color, and lift up recommendations for reform.

People of color in the United States experience poorer health and more premature, preventable mortality than their White counterparts. Although health care companies prioritize achieving health equity, their efforts often focus on disparities caused by poverty, education, and disability without explicitly addressing how structural racism significantly raises the risk of poor health for people of color. Corporate diversity and inclusion efforts, while helpful, are not sufficient to counter biases in clinical practice or access to health care. By better serving communities of color, health care companies can deliver better outcomes and strengthen their own economic performance.

A follow-up to The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity, developed in partnership with FSG, this report focuses on actions taken by companies in the health care sector to create business value by addressing the unique challenges faced by communities of color. The companies featured in this report—ProMedica, Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group—have adopted several business strategies that improve health outcomes for people of color and create a competitive advantage through reduced costs, avoided readmissions, and greater member satisfaction.

Top Takeaways

1. For health care organizations to achieve health equity, it is essential to have an explicit focus on racial equity.
2. Leading health care providers and commercial insurance companies are redesigning the ways in which they provide core services to better meet the needs of people of color and they are making investments to improve community conditions that affect health.
3. These companies also have strong internal catalysts that enable them to implement strategies—including a diverse employee base that feels included, strong leadership that understands why race matters, and an organizational structure that connects equity to business goals.

Find all related material for The Corporate Racial Equity Advantage

Historically, financial institutions in the United States have not served people of color effectively or fairly. Even today, people of color have less access to credit, pay higher interest rates for loans, and are less likely to receive venture capital funding as compared to their White counterparts. Serving these markets effectively is not only a moral imperative, but also an economic opportunity to enhance a company’s bottom line.

A follow-up to The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity, developed in partnership with FSG, this report highlights specific action steps leading companies in the financial sector have taken to create business value by using credit, savings, and investment products to address the unique challenges faced by communities of color. The companies featured in this report—Citi, Oportun, OneUnited Bank, Prudential Financial, and Impact America Fund—have found competitive advantage through their strategies to serve consumers who have historically been excluded.

Top Takeaways

1. With a deeper understanding of the impacts of structural racism, financial services companies can avoid one-size-fits-all approaches to product and service development and better serve historically excluded populations of color and thus reach expanded markets.
2. Leading financial services companies are reconceiving products and services to better meet the needs of people of color and are strengthening their external business environment by supporting public policies and norms that expand financial security.
3. These companies also have strong internal catalysts—including a diverse employee base and a culture of inclusion—that enable them to implement strategies that advance racial equity and business growth.

Find all related material for The Corporate Racial Equity Advantage. 

Amid the worst renter crisis in a generation, it is time for policymakers to respond to the call for rent control to protect renters from skyrocketing rents and displacement. Rent control has tremendous payoff: if the rent control policies being debated right now in six states and two cities become reality, 12.7 million renter households will be stabilized. If adopted by states nationwide, 42 million households could be stabilized.

• Read the full report on how rent control can build stable, healthy communities. This report was produced by a collaboration between PolicyLink, the Center for Popular Democracy, and the Right To The City Alliance.
• Our Homes, Our Future: How Rent Control Can Build Stable, Healthy Communities (Executive Summary)
• Rent Control Myths Versus Reality: The Evidence on Unintended Consequences

Sarah Treuhaft highlights key findings from the report, and speakers from Oregon and New York will discuss their local campaigns and the growing movement led by renters to push for stronger tenant protection laws. View the webinar recording.

Winter 2014 edition of the National Civic Review features Judith Bell and Larry Cohen discussing the Convergence Partnership’s approach to place-based environmental and policy change, using the power of collaboration to create a “field of fields.”

This curriculum, conceived as a PowerPoint presentation, is based in the recognition of the central importance of housing and neighborhood opportunity to the social determinants of health. Homes, neighborhoods, air and water quality have significant implications for population health, but have not been widely considered in housing planning, and rarely through a racial equity lens. The curriculum addresses social determinant factors such as exposure to toxics/crime/physical stressors; access to secure, adequate, affordable housing; socioeconomic status; access to fresh and healthy foods; educational attainment; and racial and social isolation. A focus on social determinants looks for solutions beyond medical care and the treatment of diseases and chronic conditions, and toward prevention strategies and the equitable development of communities. The narrative document, a facilitator’s guide, supports the PowerPoint presentation and can be used to guide stakeholders through the steps of an effective equitable healthy housing planning process. The facilitator’s guide is annotated with the corresponding slide numbers of the PowerPoint.

Water, Health and Equity explains why America’s water infrastructure is failing and describes the impacts of those failures on public health in low-income communities and communities of color. It proposes policy solutions, developed and advocated by the Clean Water for All coalition, which -- if implemented -- could create a national water infrastructure that works for everyone.