A group of children and adults stand together on a dirt path surrounded by trees and greenery, smiling at the camera during an outdoor community activity.

Creating Healthy Communities

Health, safety, and wellbeing through thriving, equitable communities is at the heart of our vision. We center community as the essential unit of transformation and affirm what community members already know: when we invest in comprehensive, community-level prevention, people have the conditions they need to thrive, feel connected, and participate fully in civic life.

Our approach prioritizes transforming community conditions as a direct pathway to stronger health, safety, and wellbeing. Using our THRIVE tool, we examine how factors across the sociocultural, physical/built, and economic/educational environments shape these conditions. We recognize that community conditions are also shaped by structural racism, sexism, heteronormativity, and the inequitable distribution of resources, power, and opportunity. In response, we prioritize communities most vulnerable to these structural harms and those experiencing the greatest inequities. We partner with communities to learn from and honor their life experiences and support the implementation of community-determined solutions.

Our work contributes towards strengthened and connected community collaboratives that are reshaping the built and physical environment, supporting access to local wealth and resources, and building community power. This includes collaborating across sectors and issues to identify and act on shared priorities, foster the conditions for community healing and resilience, and reinforce community-rooted approaches that strengthen community leadership and influence. These efforts help practitioners and decision-makers understand and act on the immutable connection between community conditions and health, safety, and wellbeing.