Data, tools, and stories to improve communities and inspire change.

Top stories from Community Commons

Food

Healthy Meals on a Budget: Nutrition that Works for Real Families

In practice, household food management is a complex, messy business involving many factors beyond the availability of healthy foods. Some families have persistent beliefs that healthy foods are unaffordable, or hard and time-consuming to prepare. Some are overwhelmed by navigating grocery stores, markets and restaurants, or misled by aggressive marketing and complicated labeling. And in many families, long-ingrained cultural habits and practices, overlaid with day-to-day family dynamics, make it a real challenge to transform dietary habits. Read more

General​Health​Equity

Bright Spots in Appalachia

Researchers traveled to ten Bright Spot counties—places that were identified, via the statistical analysis, as being in the top tenth in terms of better-than-expected health—and explored the programs, strategies, and attitudes that may be contributing to their better-than-expected health. Though no causal linkages are claimed in the report, many promising findings emerged. Read more

General​Health​Equity

Spotlight Stories: Snohomish County, Washington

The coalition built a foundation for LiveHealthy2020, which engages a broad cross-section of partners around a common focus to improve the health and economic vitality of Snohomish County. The work centered around increasing physical activity, improved nutrition, mental/emotional wellbeing and civic health. The result: a shared community vision to improve health, quality of life and competitiveness in a globalized economy. Read more

Health​Equity

Bearing the Burden: How racism-related stress hurts America’s black mothers and babies

This has been reprinted with permission from the Columbia Missourian on July 16, 2018, written by Alexis Allison with input from Community Commons.  Halfway through Mattina Davenport’s first trimester, she named her daughter Maliyah Rose. Maliyah — like Obama’s Malia — and Rose, a bringer of beauty. It was 2015, and though Davenport wanted Maliyah, she hadn’t … Read more

Browse all Commons articles.