New case studies show community developers are partnering to create neighborhoods where everyone can be healthier

Innovative community developers are making a real difference in the neighborhoods they are revitalizing, creating places that offer the physical, social and economic resources that all people need in order to live healthy lives. Cross-sector collaboration is a given in these projects, as are new ways of thinking about community revitalization. At the Build Healthy Places Network, we are excited by the potential these projects have to create lasting change for low-income communities.

Our Community Close Ups , a series of nine case studies, dig into how some of these forward-thinking projects have been accomplished. We published the first four last December, highlighting a comprehensive planned neighborhood with a strong focus on childhood education, a health and literacy hub in a dense urban community, renovation of an apartment complex to better serve immigrants and refugees, and a whole-neighborhood strategy to revitalize a low-income section of a high-cost city while keeping housing affordable for the people living there. In fact, our January #NetworkCommons convened the project leaders from these first four studies for an online, real-time conversation.

The final five case studies in the series are now available, offering new insights about partnering, financing, identifying opportunities, and overcoming obstacles to create healthy communities.

In these final five case studies, find out:

• How a neighborhood center in Houston is bringing immigrants from over 40 countries together in a vibrant, economically dynamic, and socially cohesive community.
• Why healthy food became the new anchor for a forgotten commercial corridor in central New Orleans, linking economic health with the health of residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.
• What kinds of outcomes one of the oldest and most comprehensive neighborhood revitalization projects, launched over 20 years ago in Atlanta, is now showing. (For one thing, school performance is through the roof!)
• How a better understanding of trauma and toxic stress has guided community building in San Francisco for public housing residents and their wealthier neighbors – even before construction breaks ground.
• How a hospital system and a housing authority in Stamford, CT started a conversation about real estate, and ended up making health the central theme for a whole neighborhood.

We think these dynamic projects have a lot to teach us about how to create places where everyone can thrive. What do you think?