The goal of Raising Places is to inspire community transformation. We empower local change agents to build healthier places where children and families can thrive.
WHY KIDS?
All children deserve the opportunity to grow up healthy and strong. Yet many of the nation’s youngest residents live in communities where they and their families face significant obstacles—unsafe housing, lack of green space, poor air quality, crumbling infrastructure, limited job opportunities and violence. And as we know from recent analysis of the Moving to Opportunity project, exposure to a better environment during childhood is a key driver of long-term success.
When children are the focus, everyone benefits. We’ve seen over and over again that laws and programs designed to support vulnerable groups, such as children, often end up benefiting all of society. Angela Glover Blackwell calls this the Curb Cut Effect, and we reap its rewards every day. For example, seat belt laws, originally adopted to protect young children, have saved an estimated 317,000 lives - children and adults - since 1975.
WHY PLACE?
When it comes to health, your zip code matters more than your genetic code. The public health field has seen more and more evidence of this; one incredible example is the Mapping Life Expectancy project at VCU’s Center on Society and Health. The maps show that opportunities to lead a long and healthy life can vary dramatically by neighborhood. In some cases, life expectancy can differ by as much as 20 years in neighborhoods only about five miles apart.
Place brings everyone to the table. The challenges facing communities are systemic and interconnected; they won’t be addressed sustainably by a single organization or field. We focus on local, geographically-defined communities because of the role of place as a unifier - something through which a wide range of stakeholders can be involved, invested and impacted.
FRAMING
Defining the right questions to answer and the appropriate people to engage
RESEARCH
Defining the right questions to answer and the appropriate people to engage
SYNTHESIS
Defining the right questions to answer and the appropriate people to engage
CONCEPTING
Defining the right questions to answer and the appropriate people to engage
PROTOTYPING
Defining the right questions to answer and the appropriate people to engage
PILOT-PLANNING
Defining the right questions to answer and the appropriate people to engage
