Place Matters

Where you live affects your health.  Place matters.  There is growing recognition that neighborhood environmental and social or “place-based” factors-from local economic opportunities and access to good jobs, to social interactions with neighbors, to the physical environment and access to clean, safe open spaces and playgrounds, to services such as local grocery stores where residents can buy healthy nutritious foods–all affect individual health.

Place Matters is a health initiative focused on addressing social and economic factors contributing to health disparities (racial and/or ethnic differences in health) within communities.

A National Initiative

Place Matters is a National Initiative pioneered by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Health Policy Institute (HPI), that aims to improve the health outcomes of 24 participating communities throughout the United States by addressing the social conditions that lead to poor health.

 The Joint Center HPI approach to reducing health disparities involves identifying the complex underlying causes or “social determinants of health” in various communities and defining strategies to address these root causes.  These underlying causes of community and individual health can include factors such as housing, employment, transportation, education, racism, poverty, and levels of economic development which impact health.  A growing body of scientific research has shown that altering these underlying causes or social determinants of health can modify patterns of health, illness and health disparities.

A Local Response

In Baltimore, Associated Black Charities is playing a lead role as a convener of the Baltimore Place Matters Collaborative for Health Equity.  The Collaborative has identified racial inequities in Baltimore as an underlying cause of housing and educational differentials that create and sustain health disparities. Historically, the limited availability of and access to housing and educational resources has obstructed the quality of life opportunities for children, youth and families in Baltimore.

With a focus on education, community mobilization, advocacy and communication, the Place Matters Collaborative for Health Equity seeks to utilize data and national best practices to inform the development of public policies that have a measurable impact on reducing health disparities in Baltimore.  Initial activities have included educational screenings and panel discussions of the documentary “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?”

The Baltimore Place Matters Collaborative for Health Equity includes the following partner organizations:

• Associated Black Charities,
• Baltimore City Council,
• Baltimore City Health Department
• Children’s Chance for Change,
• Cradle 2 College Pipeline, Inc.
• Maryland Health Care Commission
• Mid-Atlantic Association of Community Health Centers
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.