A mother and two young daughters with backpacks hold hands while walking on a sidewalk.
A mother and two young daughters with backpacks hold hands while walking on a sidewalk.

Transforming neighborhoods to improve health and wellbeing.

Community development helps create neighborhoods that enable residents to thrive where they live, learn, work and play. 

RWJF believes every community in every ZIP code should be a place where the people there can live their healthiest lives. While there is no single vision for what a healthy community looks like, community development—the work of creating the conditions so all residents can thrive—is key to reaching this vision. 

What happens when the health and community development sectors realize they’re working toward the same goal of enabling people to live their healthiest lives?

Watch this video to learn how the field of community development evolved in the past decade to help communities meet residents’ needs and address the effects of racism embedded in policies and practices.

The Future of Community Development

What are opportunities for the future of community development? We asked six experts.

Featured Initiatives

RWJF funds many initiatives to create opportunities that improve health equity. For this area of focus, these initiatives were selected to demonstrate grantmaking that is helping us achieve the greatest impact.

A daycare teacher playing with a group of young children outside.

Purpose Built Communities

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Street view of a row of houses.

Center for Community Investment

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A medical professional talking with a woman holding an infant.

Healthy Neighborhoods Study

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Construction crew and community members review building plans by a pickup truck.

Build Healthy Places Network

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Community organizers talk while touring a neighborhood.

Third Space Action Lab

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Women and a baby in a stroller crossing the street.

Invest Health

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Three men smile while carrying on a conversation outside.

Partners for Rural Transformation

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Impact Investments for Community Development

The community development finance system (infographic)—made up of mission-driven lenders (infographic) is a main driver of capital for essentials like affordable housing, clean water, and small businesses that create jobs and generational wealth in communities that historically have experienced a lack of investment, especially communities of color and those with low incomes. Our impact investments and related grants focus on strengthening the community development finance system.

Resources from Grantees

Residential Segregation and Health: History, Harms, and Next Steps

Read more on Health Affairs

Public Policies to Address Residential Segregation and Improve Health

Read more on Health Affairs

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Drawing Houses Illustration

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Healthy communities illustration.

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When people establish roots, make friendships, raise families, and participate in activities like volunteering or mentoring, a place becomes a community.

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Three cyclists crossing the street.

Infrastructure

Promoting health equity through public infrastructure is a critical step toward creating communities and regions where all residents may participate in, and benefit from, decisions that shape the places they call home.

1-min read

Infrastructure & Energy
A father and son walking on a sidewalk while a bus passes by.

Impact Investing

Impact investing expands our toolkit and builds on our decades-long work changing systems and policies to improve health, especially for those facing the greatest obstacles.

2-min read

Health Disparities
A community leader speaking at a neighborhood gathering.

Building Community Power

RWJF supports research and organizing to increase grassroots capacity to shape conditions for healthier communities, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.

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