THE WHAT OF BHC

Health Happens when all of us matter. Building Healthy Communities partners are changing the odds so that every Californian gets a chance at a long, healthy life by addressing the causes of poor health.

Health has more to do with place than doctors’ visits. The odds are stacked against low-income communities and communities of color. In our new animated video, “A Tale of Two Zip Codes,” we see that differences in neighborhood quality translates into big differences in life expectancy.  Community health is not an accident; it’s the result of historical and present day differences in how some communities are valued over others. Building Healthy Communities is about changing rules at the local and state levels so that everyone is valued and has access to the resources and opportunities essential for a long and healthy life.

The strategy is simple: build power in place among adult and youth residents to advocate for the local issues that affect them the most and create opportunities to link local issues to statewide change. The policy priorities being pursued in the sites and across the state are as diverse as the communities themselves—from salad bars to skate parks—and are organized into Twelve Transformative Policy and Systems Change Priorities, outlined in the chart below.

Taken together, we believe the Transformative Twelve comprise the activities necessary to move the needle toward health equity. Visit the Meet The 14 Places page to find out more about each community and their current priorities.

To download the Transformative Twelve as a PDF, click here