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COVID-19 Response and Resources

The Build Healthy Places Network has curated some of the most informative articles, useful tools, best practices, and promising policies that are emerging as we navigate our way through the coronavirus pandemic.

We know that the huge amount of information being generated around COVID-19 can be overwhelming.  With that in mind we reviewed resources from  the  community development and health sectors and categorized the best of what we found into several themes, with an emphasis on cross-sector collaboration. These themes reflect the  Principles for Building Healthy and Prosperous Communities, which focus on achieving an equitable future where good health and fair opportunity are outcomes for all.

Responding to COVID-19 is a dynamic process requiring us to react to rapidly shifting challenges. Similarly, we hope that you will help us grow and update these resources as we build our knowledge of the pandemic’s trajectory and what responses work for our communities over time. If you come across resources that should be added to this library, please email us at info@buildhealthyplaces.org. Stay safe and healthy! – The Build Healthy Places Team

Theme 1: Health Equity and Justice

In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic in the US has been defined by its exposure to the health inequities that persistently plague the country. This has resulted in calls for us to approach this crisis as a point of inflection. How can we leverage our data, experience and lessons learned to establish health justice and create environments supportive of health for everyone?

Theme 2: The Rural Lens and the Impact on Tribal Nations

20% of the US population live in rural areas.  Initially focused on larger urban centers, COVID-19 pandemic moved quickly to rural communities, highlighting the many challenges being faced by organizations working in these areas.

Native American communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, further magnifying the inequities Native communities experienced for generations.  These resources illustrate the unique impact COVID-19 has on Indigenous peoples.

Theme 3: Designing the ‘New Normal’

Theme 4: Muscle Memory - knowledge from previous challenges and disasters

What have community development and other organizations learned from previous emergency and disaster planning that has prepared them for the COVID-19 pandemic?

Theme 5: Policy and Practices to Lead us Forward [Policies at Federal, State and Municipal level]

The scale of the pandemic’s impact has led to a surge of policy changes at state and federal levels and adaptation of practices. These resources document and examine some of those changes and some go further to speculate how we might keep them in service of designing our vision for the future.

Theme 6: Cross-Sector Partnerships and Perspectives

The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) have emerged as the cornerstone of our population’s health in this crisis and beyond. Effectively addressing SDOH requires cross-sector partnerships. These resources include cross-sector perspectives on responding both to the acute and long term needs of communities.