The University of Louisville and Simmons College of Kentucky are working together on a year and a half long project to look into the factors of a neighborhood that contribute negatively and positively to the health of its residents to create a plan for a Universal Basic Neighborhood.
The University of Louisville and Simmons College of Kentucky have teamed up for a new project to study how various aspects of a neighborhood contribute to the health of the community either positively or negatively. The two institutions will look into what changes can be made to a place to improve the health of the people living there. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided a $500,000 grant for the study, which will last for 18 months, to identify the features all neighborhoods should have in order to ensure optimal health of its community members.
Researchers from the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Enivrome Institute and Simmons’ Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. Center for Racial Justice will work together with legal scholar Shavonnie Carthens and urban studies expert Michael Emerson of Rice University to conduct surveys of residents from two Louisville neighborhoods, review extant data on environmental factors that affect health, and look into legal aspects of neighborhood development with the end goal of outlining what a Universal Basic Neighborhood might look like. A Universal Basic Neighborhood is a neighborhood that has all of the needed assets that residents of a community need to thrive where they live.
In the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness’ most recent Health Equity Report from 2017, there is evidence of large differences in mortality and morbidity in residents of different neighborhoods across the city. For example, in Louisville’s most majority Black communities, life expectancy can be up to 12.6 years lower than in the most predominantly white and affluent communities. Another finding was that Black babies born between 2011 and 2015 have a death rate that is nearly twice as high as those in the Louisville Metro area, and 2.31 times higher than white babies. The study also found that maladies like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes vary by income, race, and location.
In an article posted on the University of Louisville’s website, Ted Smith, the director of the UofL Center for Healthy Air, Water, and Soil which is part of the Envirome Institute, was quoted on the importance of good living conditions, saying, “We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and we still have places where living conditions contribute to diseases that are entirely preventable. This work is about diagnosing and treating places so that the health benefits are shared by many.”
Many of the efforts to address health inequities that are taking place now are focused on providing health resources to individuals who are found to need it. However, this study will look for ways to improve health for an entire neighborhood by providing resources that will make it easier for residents to be able to make healthy choices.
Nancy Seay, chair of the James R. L. Diggs Department of Sociology at Simmons, was quoted about the importance of looking at things on a neighborhood level, saying, “Neighborhoods, no matter where they are, are not inherently bad or good. They’re just neighborhoods. However, one thing that makes neighborhoods different from each other is access to health-supportive resources. “We know that every neighborhood has a rich fabric of local resources that residents access, and we want to uncover these and promote their utilization. Everyone, no matter where they live, wants and deserves to enjoy good health and a long life. This project can be a game changer for the way we think about designing and supporting neighborhoods and their residents.”
Seay and Smith will lead the research team in assembly of the evidence gained from the surveys to look at place-based factors that are associated with good health as well as identify and map assets in two demographically different neighborhoods in Louisville, look into the history of civic investment in Louisville, and finally, determine how to create and implement new city policy that better supports the health of its residents.
The Universal Basic Neighborhood project will work in the same manner as other efforts that worked to ensure waste removal and clean drinking water for entire communities. The project will assess and rank factors that are shown to contribute to healthier and longer lives, such as access to healthy food and transportation, greenness, and opportunities for exercise and recreation. The UBN project hopes to approach health equity with the philosophy that investing in resources that benefit the health of an entire underserved neighborhood rather than to intervene in the health of an individual at a time.
The first stage of the project is scheduled to begin in September with Seay leading work to map assets of Louisville’s California and Crescent Hill neighborhoods. Seay’s Participatory Action Research class students will conduct door to door surveys, interviews, and focus groups in those communities to see how residents of those neighborhoods find out how empowered they feel to make changes in their lives, what aspects of their environment they think contribute to their health, and how they find good health. The researchers will also look to identify important assets centered around specific interests and culture of the people they survey that had not previously been studied. University of Louisville students also have the ability to take Seay’s class through a reciprocal agreement with Simmons.
At the University of Louisville, Smith will lead a review of previously conducted and published studies that will assist in the justifications of proposed components of a Universal Basic Neighborhood and provide criteria to weigh those components. The factors that are evaluated will include those that both promote health and contribute to disease such as forms of transit, access to parks, and the variety of entertainment, recreational, and educational venues.
Shavonnie Carthens, who works as a legal scholar for the University of Kentucky’s J. David Rosenberg College of Law, and was previously a member of the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, will work with the study to analyze what drives policies that will require reform based on what is determined necessary for an optimal neighborhood environment. She will look into the legal framework needed to support the public provision of a Universal Basic Neighborhood, and the parts of society that will most easily be able to provide those resources.
The Chavanne Fellow in Religion and Public Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute, Michael Emerson, will take part in the project, as well. He is also the co-founder of Rice Univeristy’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
Once the project is finished, the team will have developed a playbook that will provide guidance for communities in defining the needs of their own neighborhood and outline steps toward creating their own plan for achieving those needs.
Residents of the Crescent Hill and California neighborhoods who wish to participate in focus group interviews or surveys for the project can reach out to Patricia Reeves for more information at patricia.reeves@simmonscollegeky.edu.
Community Partners who wish to learn more about the project and for ways they can collaborate can reach out to Lauren Anderson by email at lauren.anderson@louisville.edu.
Updates on the project will be posted on the social media pages for the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Simmons College.
More information about the University of Louisville can be found at the school’s website.