promise zones

intro’d to promise zones via this tedmed event:

We now know that where we live, down to our individual zip codes, can determine our current and future health. Our income, environment, nutrition, education, and services are major life influences from pre-birth to death, and easing disparate outcomes involves every facet of society. A new array of public-private programs are giving it a try with unprecedented inter-agency efforts to stimulate economic, social and physical health of communities, including a new program called the Promise Zones. What is it, and will it work? Sign up today.

Join us for a discussion about the impact of poverty on health and new approaches to breaking zip code barriers. Our guests this week are from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Penn Medicine, and ChildFirst, and are joined by representatives from the United States Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services.

“Here in the United States, a zip code can tell us a lot about how well and how long you’ll live…What’s behind these differences in life expectancy? Disparities in neighborhood conditions. Our history of residential segregation has concentrated not just certain communities (typically communities of color), but also poverty.”

Dr. Gail Christopher
Vice President for Program Strategy, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

from promise zones site page:

Since 2009, the President has provided proven tools to combat poverty, investing more than $350 million in 100 of the nation’s persistent pockets of poverty.

Building on those efforts, in his State of the Union Address earlier this year, the President laid out an initiative to designate a number of high-poverty communities as Promise Zones, where the federal government will partner with and invest in communities to create jobs, leverage private investment, increase economic activity, expand educational opportunities, and improve public safety.

we lace everything in – jobs/economy/education/safety/health…

but what if these are exactly the wrong things to be asking.. and exactly the right distraction.. because they are what we’ve always focused on..