For two years, West Oakland residents and community partners worked to research and identify seventeen indicators to monitor environmental, health, and social conditions for their neighborhood. Residents then used the data in the indicators report to issue a formal request that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) develop stronger regulations requiring the Red Star Yeast factory (the area's second leading source of toxic emissions) to reduce both pollution and noxious odors. The evidence in the report was also used to build media advocacy, testify at public hearings, and to garner letters demanding regulation and enforcement from the Department of Public Health and local elected officials. The combination of evidence and pressure led BAAQMD to remove the exemptions that had grandfathered Red Star Yeast into antiquated emissions standards.

Believed to be the first ordinance of its kind, Chicago's legislation to limit restrictive land-use covenants prevents supermarkets and drugstores from restricting future use of vacated property in the event of store closures. This ordinance holds great promise to prevent neighborhood blight and promote residents' continued access to fresh, healthy food retailers.

An award-winning architectural makeover of a Chicago Housing project improved the ambiance of the development and has created a safe atmosphere, in which tenants feel at ease in the common spaces and are more comfortable walking around.

Concerned about high pedestrian injury rates, residents of Cutler and Orosi in Tulare County, California identified and implemented solutions through a series of community wide forums, focus groups, and workshops.

The Garden of Eden is a community-run grocery like facility established to serve the African American community in St. Louis. The project was initiated because local advocates and researchers identified obesity as a major health concern.

An award-winning initiative, the Shreveport/Bossier Community Renewal (SBCR) is an effort to rebuild the social bonds within the Shreveport region of Louisiana, a low-income area with high crime rates.

In Pittsburg, California a city that has a large Mexican American population, mothers were not putting their children in car seats while driving at the same rate as in the county overall. In response to this, a policy was passed which provided money to make car seats available to low-income families.

In the Pico Union/MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles-home to a diverse Latino population-the Los Angeles Economic Development Zone provides services to under-employed and unemployed residents to help them become licensed to prepare, handle, and sell food products that are healthy and reflect the culture of local community.

LIFETIME is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California that assists single mothers on welfare to obtain higher education and remain off of welfare and out of poverty permanently.

Recognizing that "undoing racism," and embracing cultural diversity are keys to eliminating persistent health disparities in the city of Boston, the Boston Public Health Commission led a multi-faceted initiative that began with an institutional assessment in which the Commission asked the question, "how is racism at play here?"