Welcome to PolicyLink

Mildred Thompson, the director of the PolicyLink Center for Health and Place, discusses the recent PolicyLink report,

Breathing Easy from Home to School: Fighting the Environmental Triggers of Childhood Asthma on The Celsias Show.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

“Below the Line: The Changing Face of American Poverty,” a provocative series profiling a vast range of people living at or below the poverty line in the United States critically examines what it looks like to be poor in America today.

Angela Glover Blackwell frames each installment from a public policy perspective, while respective experts offer insight and strategic solutions for the foreclosure crisis, living wage, inadequate health care, homelessness, transitional housing, and ex-offender re-entry, along with other issues faced by a growing number of Americans.

To listen to the whole series, or to discuss the different installments, link to Equity Blog.

Smart, equity-focused transit oriented development (TOD) pdf creates compact, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented communities -- located around new or existing public transit stations -- to achieve a number of different objectives: reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, lower residents' transportation costs, promote walking and health, ease traffic congestion, and improve environmental quality.

The new TOD tool (pdf), the latest in the PolicyLink Equitable Development Toolkit, focuses on how to implement TOD in a way that achieves equity goals. Check out the TOD tool for strategies and lessons learned, so that you can advocate for equitable transit oriented development.

Browse to TOD tool (html) in Equitable Development Toolkit.

Regional equity is part of a broad and hopeful vision for full inclusion and sustainability and the focus of the recent PolicyLink summit in New Orleans in early March. Distributed first to summit participants, Regional Equity and the Quest for Full Inclusion is the document that sets the scene for change. It examines the history of equity in America and how national and global forces are creating unique challenges and opportunities. It concludes with a vision of the future characterized by shared economic prosperity and true participatory democracy, one where everyone--including people of color and residents of low-income communities--can contribute and benefit.

For press coverage from Regional Equity '08: The Third National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth, click here.

Transforming Community Development with Land Information Systems, a new report released by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy describes how community organizations are using property data to revitalize urban areas and create affordable housing where it is most needed. The report was co-authored by PolicyLink senior associate Sarah Treuhaft and by G. Thomas Kingsley of the Urban Institute.

Click here to read the full press release issued by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by Lifting Up What Works®

Our Equitable Development Updates, a monthly e-newsletter, highlights new research, upcoming events, advocacy campaigns, policy strategies, and promising practices from communities across the country. Our New Publications email announces recent research, reports, and policy briefs. Sign Up to stay informed.

New Report Provides Blueprint to Fight the Environmental Triggers of Childhood Asthma

Breathing Easy from Home to School: Fighting the Environmental Triggers of Childhood Asthma, a new report released by PolicyLink and The California Endowment lays out a plan for what we all can do to make our children’s air safer and healthier. The report provides a blueprint for dramatically reducing the community factors that contribute to asthma development and spark asthma attacks.

“Too many kids in poor communities are forced to breathe unhealthy air from the moment they get up to the moment they go to sleep,” said Judith Bell, president of PolicyLink. “We must eliminate the environmental asthma triggers that are leaving millions of our children gasping for air.” Fixing these problems will require the concerted partnership of community organizations and policymakers. The report builds on the innovative efforts to combat asthma triggers by more than a dozen organizations nationwide.

To download the report, or read the press release, please click here.

New Study Finds Food Options Affect Risk for Diabetes, Obesity

Californian's face an added challenge as they battle expanding waistlines and obesity-related diseases – their home address. A landmark study by PolicyLink, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy shows the state’s first direct correlation between where you live and your risk for obesity or diabetes. The groundbreaking study, Designed for Disease: the Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabete, examines the correlation between the health of nearly 40,000 Californians and the mix of retail food outlets near their homes. The key finding: people living in neighborhoods crowded with fast-food and convenience stores but relatively few grocery or produce outlets are at significantly higher risk of suffering from obesity and diabetes.

“Clearly the obesity crisis in California can no longer be seen only as a fight over personal choices,” said Victor Rubin, Vice President for Research at PolicyLink. “Public policies drive the universe of food options from which we can choose. Families who live in communities with choices limited to high-calorie foods and beverages face substantially greater health risks. Policy makers at the state and local level can save lives by giving Californian's healthier food options.”

To read the full report, click here. To read the press release, click here. To see a sampling of the news coverage generated by this report vist the PolicyLink News Page.

Where You Live Affects How You Live

Socioeconomic and environmental conditions such as income, segregation, pollution, crime, availability of fresh foods and safe recreational facilities, and accessible quality housing have dramatic impacts on individual and community health.

Richmond CA blighted neighborhood This message resounds in the landmark PBS documentary Unnatural Causes ... Is Inequality Making us Sick?, a four-part series that sheds light on the critical importance of economics, race and class on health outcomes. The documentary skillfully portrays the vast disparities in health and overall quality of life between families with wealth and those clinging to the middle and lower rungs of the economic ladder. (photo courtesy of Unnatural Causes)

Go to EquityBlog and join the discussion, why place matters when it comes to health.

Introducing The PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity

stable buildings, reliable buses, good schools, and other infrastructure needs The PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity advocates for fair and inclusive policies and provides community and grassroots leaders, advocates, and public officials with the tools, training, and consultation needed to ensure that public investments in infrastructure create economic opportunity and health in all communities.

The center has evolved out of several years of action-oriented research and partnerships by PolicyLink with state and local organizations, and is poised to continue that work while also addressing key new federal infrastructure policy opportunities. For more information about the center, visit the Infrastructure overview page or to download the brochure for The PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity, click here.