This report explores and provides examples of how key changes to components of the financial, education, justice, health, and tax systems can strengthen—rather than undermine—households’ financial security, and increase economic inclusion.

It describes innovative approaches that integrate a focus on building financial security across programs, while reforming the systems that most affect the balance sheets of lower-income families and families of color. The featured approaches run the gamut from small local programs to state and federal policy reforms and initiatives. These innovations and the changes that they represent to key systems may be adapted and expanded to strengthen the financial security of vulnerable people and communities nationwide.

Mirroring national trends, Pinellas County in Florida is becoming more diverse. In the next few decades, the majority of the county’s residents will be people of color from a rich variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. As a result, the success and prosperity of the county rely on dismantling unjust barriers and ensuring that everyone can participate in and enjoy the benefits of a thriving economy. This profile illustrates how disparities in income, housing, educational attainment, and many other areas are costing Pinellas County billions of dollars in potential economic growth each year. In addition, the accompanying summary offers several promising strategies that have been used across the country to eliminate barriers and advance equity. Both the profile and summary were developed by PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC, in partnership with UNITE Pinellas. Read the profile and summary.

Media: Report: With Population Shifts on the Way, Pinellas Needs to Change (Tampa Bay Times), Study: Addressing Racial Inequities Would Boost Pinellas County GDP by $3.6 Billion (St. Pete Catalyst), First-ever Countywide Equity Assessment Spotlights Need for Change (Tampa Bay Newspapers), Insight Action, Not Data Collection, Required to Create Nutrition Equity in St. Petersburg (St. Pete Catalyst)

Like other cities in Southern California, Long Beach became a majority people-of-color city decades ago, ahead of the national trend, and the pace of change is now slowing. Today, seven in 10 Long Beach residents are people of color, yet persistent inequities by race, gender, and geography threaten the city’s economic vitality. Embracing diversity as an asset and advancing equity is the city’s path to a prosperous future. This profile is designed to be a resource for all seeking to enhance prosperity for everyone in Long Beach, including advocacy groups, government agencies, elected officials, funders, business and civic leaders, and more. The summary report that accompanies this profile highlights leading indicators and offers policy recommendations. PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California are grateful to Citi Community Development for their generous support of this project. Read the profile, summary, and fact sheet (English, Spanish, Tagalog, Khmer), and see the press release.

Media: Lessons From California’s Diverse Cities (US News & World Report)

As home to nine Fortune 500 companies, and new investment in neighborhoods such as Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati is poised for an economic renaissance. But not all residents are benefiting from this recovery. Persistent racial and gender inequities are preventing many residents, particularly women of color, from thriving. This profile illustrates how disparities in income, housing, educational attainment, and many other areas are costing the Cincinnati region billions of dollars in potential economic growth each year. In addition, the accompanying policy brief offers a series of recommendations designed to close some of these gaps. They were developed by PolicyLink and the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC, in partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Interact for Health, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, and with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Read the profile, policy brief, and fact sheet, and see the press release.

Urban corner store interventions have been implemented to improve access to and promote purchase of healthy foods. However, the perspectives of store owners and managers, who deliver and shape these interventions in collaboration with nonprofit, government, and academic partners, have been largely overlooked. We sought to explore the views of store owners and managers on the role of their stores in the community and their beliefs about health problems and solutions in the community.

In 2015, 42.2 million people in 15.8 million households were food insecure at some point during the year, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service in the new report Household Food Security in the United States in 2015. The concept of “food security” is used by the USDA to measure a household’s ability to access adequate food. Today’s data show a decrease in the number of households impacted by food insecurity from 2014, but 12.7 percent of households still experienced food insecurity, highlighting the fact that too many families with low incomes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs. 

The seventh and final report in the “City Voices: New Yorkers on Health” series, “Food and Nutrition: Hard Truths about Eating Healthy” shows that while food stamps and food pantries are critical resources, they are falling short when it comes to helping low-income New Yorkers maintain healthy eating habits. The report is the result of surveys and focus groups conducted in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, with residents representing more than 10 ethnic and cultural groups talking about the issues that have the greatest impact on their overall health and wellbeing. Community health advocates also express their views in a report that explores food insecurity and the ways that cultural differences may impact healthy eating habits.

After increasing steadily for decades, the national childhood obesity rate has leveled off, but it is still alarmingly high compared with to a generation ago. The federal government has several sources that track obesity rates among children and teens, including the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey and three major studies that track national trends and rates within some states

While the report shares new data on adult obesity rates, national data show that over the past decade, childhood obesity rates have stabilized at about 17 percent and are declining among 2- to 5-year-olds. A number of cities, counties and states, including St. Cloud, Minnesota, Cherokee County, South Carolina, Seminole County, Florida, Southern California, Philadelphia, Colorado, and New Mexico, have measured declines in their childhood obesity rates in the last year alone, joining a list of many others from coast to coast.