People in Place

Author(s): Center for Community Progress

From physical structures to the environment and amenities, the condition of a neighborhood has a large influence on the wellbeing of children and their families. Through intentionally connecting people- and place-based disciplines, neighborhood impact leaders have the opportunity to leverage more than 200 years of community development research to drive positive health outcomes and impact today.

“Place-based” fields like housing and community development work to improve neighborhood conditions. “People-based” fields like public health and social services aim to improve child development and family wellbing. Yet despite the ways these are connected, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working in these fields often do not work together.

To address this gap, the Annie E. Casey foundation, the Kendeda Fund, and NeighborWorks America sponsored a learning roundtable in 2018 for more than 60 leaders to gather on interdisciplinary conversations on disrupting intergenerational poverty through neighborhood stabilization, community wealth-building, and family wellbeing and self-sufficiency. This report outlines some of the findings from that roundtable conversation.