Citation

Schuchter J, Jutte DP. Health Aff. (Hope) 2014; 33(11): 1930-1938.

Affiliation

Douglas P. Jutte is an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and executive director of the Build Healthy Places Network, in San Francisco.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation)

DOI

10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0961

PMID

25367987

Abstract

Measurement can help community development and health practitioners align and optimize their investments and leverage additional resources to achieve shared goals. However, there is no clear guidance for reconciling the established systems for measuring community development activities and outputs-such as housing units built, jobs created, and people served-with the outcomes and impacts of health. We therefore reviewed community development measurement systems-encompassing assessment, monitoring, evaluation, and standards-and identified strategies for using those systems to support health in community development decision making. We highlight promising innovations by organizations such as the Reinvestment Fund and NeighborWorks America and place these in an ecosystem framework to illustrate opportunities for shared measurement. We then discuss policies and processes to build the ecosystem's infrastructure, balance stakeholders' priorities within the ecosystem, and use it to drive investments in health.

Language: en