Neighborhood quality is a critical social determinant of health, and evidence shows that the environments where children live and play are crucial to their development. Neighborhood quality goes beyond poverty to include safe housing, grocery stores, farmers’ markets, parks and playing fields, quality schools, access to healthcare, and a pollution-free environment. Work from the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy provides evidence, guidance and tools for creating healthy environments, improving neighborhood opportunity for children, and achieving health equity.
Disparities in neighborhood opportunity are structured by systems that keep inequity in place. Policies and programs that foster more equitable systems are critical to improving the health and well-being of children and their families. Policymakers, stakeholders, and others can use the Institute’s tools, like the Policy Equity Analysis, to inform and strengthen new and existing policies that support children and families. Our work shows that equitable access to childcare subsidies, income and job protection, affordable housing, and nutrition assistance for all families optimizes children’s development and well-being by cultivating supportive and healthy environments.
diversitydatakids.org, formerly based at Brandeis, is now based at Boston University School of Social Work.