Actions Toward Equity

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize (the Prize) honors and elevates U.S. communities working at the forefront of advancing health, opportunity, and equity for all. Through our experience selecting and working with Prize-winning communities, we have found that many community leaders and residents are searching for guidance on how to accelerate efforts to give everyone in their communities a fair and just opportunity for health. What can we learn from the 35 RWJF Culture of Health Prize winners (2013-2017) to guide and inspire others?

Prize winners represent diverse communities – cities, counties, tribes, regions, and small towns; rural, urban, and suburban places – that face myriad physical, economic, and demographic challenges. For example, more than three-quarters of Prize winners have higher rates of children living in poverty than the national 2016 rate of 20%; children in poverty rates capture an upstream measure of poverty that assesses both current and future health risk. These rates underscore the importance of strategies that improve social and economic factors, maximize existing assets, build partnerships, and engage residents to improve health for everyone.