Plan & Implement

Students in Birmingham often face a tough path to college and career. While roughly 80 percent of students graduate annually from Birmingham City Schools (BCS), many are experiencing poverty, and only 50 percent advance to post-secondary institutions. In response, the mayor has pledged that any BCS student who graduates will... Read more

Birmingham recognizes that social determinants of health — including the built environment of neighborhoods, such as environmental hazards, access to green space, walkability, and more — are major factors in health inequities across the city. To address this, the Department of Planning, Engineering, and Permits developed a Health Community Assessment... Read more

In Atlanta, Black and historically underserved communities located south and west of the city have been economically stagnant despite growth in other parts of the city. The economic recession resulting from Covid-19 poses an additional threat to these communities, leaving them susceptible to even larger outcome gaps. Specifically, the pandemic... Read more

Atlanta is navigating a dual-pandemic, with city leaders focused on combating the spread of Covid-19 while also battling the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in pockets of communities. The HIV/AIDs pandemic has infected one out of every 51 Atlanta residents, and of those infected, 66 percent are Black. The Covid-19 health... Read more

In Houston, an estimated 725,000 people are food insecure, 500,000 of whom are living in federally designated districts where the closest supermarket is more than a mile away. These districts are found predominantly in the city’s historically underinvested communities, neighborhoods in which economic inequity has endured for generations. Exacerbating these... Read more

While access to wifi and high-speed internet are often taken for granted, in Houston, more than 142,500 households do not have a computer, and over 267,000 households lack broadband internet access. These communities are often historically underinvested and present significant hurdles for residents, preventing them from harnessing the power of... Read more

In 2020, New Orleans marks the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the 10th anniversary of the BP oil spill. From each disaster, the city has rebuilt, but Black residents have been largely left behind, with six times as many Black households living in poverty than white households. These economic... Read more

The New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) recently conducted a comprehensive community health assessment to gain an inclusive picture of the health status of residents. The assessment revealed five main social determinants of health — crime and violence, insufficient infrastructure, unhealthy environments, lack of jobs and fair wages, and low-quality and... Read more

The Covid-19 pandemic has sent public health and economic shockwaves across Los Angeles County particularly felt in historically underserved communities. The pandemic has been a catalyst for recognizing the social illnesses of anti-Black racism that have long plagued the county, including sharp racial gaps in wealth, employment, and digital access,... Read more

On any given night, more than 17,000 people are confined in the Los Angeles County jail system, more than 5,000 of whom have serious mental health needs. Black residents account for less than 10 percent of the county’s population, yet 29 percent of those imprisoned are Black. In recent years,... Read more