Generations of disinvestment has left many urban communities with low-quality housing, few options for healthy food and a lack of other resources that contribute to health and well-being.

This disinvestment was not an accident – it resulted from racist housing, transportation, planning and development policies that excluded many Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities from wealth-building opportunities that largely created the white middle class in the United States.  The consequences of inequitable access to affordable capital can be seen in many of the health inequities our nation struggles with today.

Through this work, we aim to improve health equity by creating robust community investment ecosystems designed to close the racial wealth gap.  Community investment ecosystems require, at a minimum, mission-driven investors with low-cost, low-burden capital and a range of community actors who are able to access and deploy that capital to finance community-defined priorities.

Together with our partners, we work to influence the investment, procurement and development policies and practices of mission-driven investors like health care systems, health plans and universities while simultaneously building the capacity of community developers and other actors to develop a coherent pipeline of shared priorities that are ready for investment.

Our goal is to disrupt standard development practices that exclude or marginalize residents with low incomes from investment decisions that often lead to displacement by ensuring that residents have true governance roles in determining how projects are prioritized and implemented.

We believe that improving neighborhood conditions while building community wealth will empower communities in achieving health equity.