A healthy environment matters for all of us, but environmental conditions are not experienced in the same way everywhere. For decades, some communities have disproportionately felt the impact of a harmful environment, and that inequity has contributed to lasting legacies of poor health.
Security is a prerequisite for human survival and essential to our well-being. When basic needs, such as access to food and shelter, are threatened, our ability to lead healthy lives is undercut.
People do best when they have productive and rewarding work, enough income to fulfill basic needs and support their families, and the ability to afford important assets like a home, as well as to invest in education.
National studies have found that people with more education report being in better health when compared to people with less education. Education’s impact on well-being not only adds to personal fulfillment, it helps to extend life expectancy and even makes the next generation healthier.
Across the nation, communities are convening diverse groups of residents to build trust across lines that too-oft divide and taking shared actions as “stewards of the future” to improve health and well-being for all. At the heart of this mission, are seven “vital conditions” that are essential for the sustained well-being of people and place.
Communities and regions are coming together to creatively address the underlying causes of ill-health and despair by building trans-partisan alliances and partnerships to implement common-sense actions that benefit people’s lives.
