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Focus Area

Community Health Ecosystems

Community health ecosystems are more than basic structures required to keep people healthy. They include the environments, people, relationships, practices and services that support safe and holistic health systems. To create thriving communities, we need to strengthen and sustain local health ecosystems that encourage community engagement, include high-quality systems of care and keep communities safe.

Communities are complex and exist at the intersections of place, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, immigration and legal status. We believe that strong community health ecosystems reflect an array of local strengths and respond to diverse local needs.

Our goal is to leverage our investments, learning and influence to support community health ecosystems that create opportunities for all people and communities to thrive.

Through this work, we aim to strengthen community health ecosystems that are accessible, informed by individuals and families, honor knowledge passed down through generations, reflect cross-sector leadership, provide high-quality coordinated services, create economic opportunity and advance racial equity.

Together with our partners and the communities they serve, we work to support equitable community-based participatory decision making, strong and inclusive health workforce pipelines and community-centered health programs.

As we move forward, we are committed to learning what communities around the country say they need to create fair and equitable systems of care and welcome their insights.