Building healthy places: how are community development organizations contributing?

Abstract

During the past 50 years, community development organizations have worked in the low-income communities that face the greatest barriers to good health. While recent changes in the American health care system and philanthropic sector provide new opportunities to partner with community development organizations to address health disparities, knowledge of current health-focused strategies and partnerships among local community-based organizations is limited. Through a survey conducted by NeighborWorks America of 242 high-performing community development organizations across the United States, we examine health strategies, partnerships, and services delivered by community development organizations and professionals. In 2015, 218 organizations (88.62%) engaged in activities at the nexus of health, housing, and community development; strategies focused on healthy homes and food access were the most common. Among respondents, 205 (83.3%) organizations engaged partners to support their work. In addition, three case studies illustrate diverse strategies by community development organizations to document health outcome improvements and medical cost reductions. While our results show significant efforts by community development organizations to explicitly target health, they also highlight opportunities for increased engagement. We elevate calls to address gaps between formal medical care and community health needs through more locally based services and partnerships.