Human Impact Partners

April 28, 2016

Dismantling the Bars on the Birdcage

| By Sara Satinsky | The recently released Coming of Age in the Other America by Stefanie DeLuca, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, and Kathryn Edin asks the question: why do some kids in the poorest neighborhoods thrive and meet their potential despite overwhelming odds when others don’t? As summarized in an excellently […]
April 1, 2016

Promoting Health Impact Assessments

Stanford Social Innovation Review article by Lili Farhang and Jonathan Heller, discussing how to bring the social determinants of health into the policymaking practice using Health Impact Assessments.
March 21, 2016

Public Health Advocates – Stop Waiting for Evidence about Gun Control!

| By Kim Gilhuly | In public health, especially government-run public health departments, we often debate whether there is “enough” evidence, or whether the evidence is “robust” enough, to justify speaking out and becoming an advocate on a particular issue. A bill in the California legislature right now would fund […]
February 29, 2016

ACEs: A Hidden Epidemic

| By Christine Cissy White | Today’s blog post is written by Christine Cissy White and is a re-post of one originally titled “Boston’s architect of community well-being: Pediatrician Renée Boynton-Jarrett”. The post was first published on February 22, 2016 by ACES Too High News.  The Aces movement is filled […]
February 6, 2016

Our Politics are Killing Us

| By Rajiv Bhatia | Today’s blog post is written by Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, a physician, health scientist, Principal of The Civic Engine, and co-founder of HIP. The post was first published on December 18, 2015 by Medium.  Doctors train to find the diseases behind the symptoms and signs. But, […]
December 10, 2015

Report-back from National Public Health and Criminal Justice Convening

| By Lili Farhang | On November 9, Human Impact Partners and the Vera Institute of Justice co-convened over 40 criminal justice advocates and public health practitioners from around the country at a groundbreaking, first of its kind convening. The event grew out of the idea that health and justice […]
December 8, 2015

Stress on the Streets (SOS): Race, Policing, Health, and Increasing Trust, not Trauma in Ohio

| By Sara Satinsky | Today, Human Impact Partners released a report that examines a critical perspective undervalued in current conversations about policing: the health perspective. Shocking cases of mistreatment, injury, and death grab headlines and go viral on social media; this report fills in the less often discussed mental, […]
November 30, 2015

Ensuring Development in South LA is Equitable, Sustainable, and Community-Led

| By Ramya Sivasubramanian | Today’s blog post is written by Ramya Sivasubramanian, a Staff Attorney at Environmental Justice in Santa Monica, California. The post was first published on November 30, 2015 by Switchboard, the Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog.  “Development is not for us, unless it is led […]
October 26, 2015

Assessing Health and Equity Impacts of the Proposed Reef Development Project in South Central Los Angeles

| By Lili Farhang | Today, Human Impact Partners, Esperanza Community Housing, Strategic Action for a Just Economy and other members of the UNIDAD Coalition are releasing the executive summary of the report Assessing Health and Equity Impacts of the Proposed Reef Development Project in South Central Los Angeles. Our […]
October 22, 2015

Development in South LA: A Threat or an Opportunity?

| By Cynthia Strathmann | Today’s guest blog is by SAJE Executive Director, Cynthia Strathmann, PhD. In this blog, she writes about the ripple effects of development in South LA and opportunities for change. It will come as a surprise to absolutely no one that Los Angeles is in the […]
October 1, 2015

‘New age trade’ could mean rollbacks on public health – what we found from doing an HIA on the proposed TPP in Australia

| By Katie Hirono | Today’s guest blog is by Katie Hirono from the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation at UNSW Australia. She is one of the co-authors of an HIA on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). Negotiators from the 12 TPP countries are convening this week […]
September 29, 2015

Dignified & Just Policing: Gang Injunctions and Other Policing Practices Have Uncertain Impacts on Community Safety and Health

| By Darío Maciel | Today, HIP and Santa Ana Building Healthy Communities (SABHC) released a report on the health and equity impacts of a gang injunction in the Townsend-Raitt neighborhood of Santa Ana, California. A gang injunction is a controversial policing practice that essentially acts as a group restraining […]
September 28, 2015

Does Organizing Have a Place in Public Health?

| By Afomeia Tesfai | Many social movements in the United States have used community organizers to mobilize and strengthen collective power to liberate communities from systems of oppression. Today, the concept of “organizing” is becoming mainstream as we watch Black communities unite to address police brutality and reform the […]
September 24, 2015

Speak up! Health is created through collective efforts

| By Jonathan Heller | This week’s blog was originally posted by The Pump Handle on September 21, 2015. In this post, HIP Co-Director Jonathan Heller reflects on how collective efforts are necessary to improve our health and well-being.  The dominant narrative in the United States is that, as individuals, we hold the […]
September 21, 2015

Is Discrimination Going Unexamined at the EPA?

| By Celia Harris | The Environmental Protection Agency has an Office of Civil Rights, designed to ensure that agencies receiving EPA funding not discriminate against certain groups of people. When I recently heard this, I was glad to think that the EPA was carefully protecting communities from discrimination. But […]
September 8, 2015

The Greater Health Impacts of the Affordable Care Act

| By Marnie Purciel-Hill | My son had an accident and broke his leg and I found a lump for which a routine biopsy was needed. When these things happened to my family, I was relieved I had health insurance to help meet our medical needs. But it’s been an […]
August 27, 2015

Climate Action is Health Action: Why Support for California Climate Legislation is Good for Our Health

This week’s blog was originally published by the Public Health Institute (PHI) on August 25, 2015.  “Amid a historic drought that has been linked to climate change, California’s state legislature is currently considering bills that aim to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades. Often considered a bellwether in […]
August 20, 2015

Fair Housing for Better Health

| By Logan Harris | One year after Michael Brown was killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, galvanizing the Black Lives Matter movement, the role of housing segregation in perpetuating racial injustice is in the news. Residential segregation is one of the major mechanisms that produce racial […]
July 24, 2015

Education: the Key to Health and Success for Foster Youth

| By Carlene Ervin | This week’s post is written by HIP’s Social Media, Research, and Data Collection Summer Intern, Carlene Ervin. She is a sophomore at Yale University and a resident of Oakland, CA.  Since I was five, my foster mom told me I would go to college. She […]
July 9, 2015

A Tale of Two Policies

| By Kim Gilhuly | Last week in Massachusetts saw the release of recommendations from Gov. Charlie Baker’s task force on the epidemics of addiction to and death from opium-derived narcotics prescription drugs. The Massachusetts plan includes welcome public health solutions: 100 new beds for people addicted; increased use of […]
June 25, 2015

Does less lead mean less crime?

| By Dario Maciel | According to FBI crime statistics, between 1961 and 1991, the rate of violent crime in the United States rose by nearly fourfold. But between 1991 and 2013, the crime rate dropped by more than half, to the lowest level since 1970. Why? Was it “tough […]
June 1, 2015

What Happens to a Dream Deferred?

| By Rachel Davis | This week’s blog is a repost by Rachel Davis of Prevention Institute. She links efforts to prevent injury and death due to violence to many of the policy issues that we research at HIP, including incarceration, economic security, education, and housing policy. The article was […]