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The Building Healthier, More Equitable Communities (BHEC) initiative aims to address the social determinants of health through changes to the built environment and the community investment system in selected New Jersey cities, including support for efforts around equitable recovery from the current health and economic crisis.

 
 
About the Initiative

Reinvestment Fund is leading the BHEC initiative, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), to support cross-sector collaboration in four cities in New Jersey: Asbury Park, Camden, Newark, Paterson.

The initiative will work with local-, regional- and state-level organizations over three years to create cross-sector learning communities, spur change to systems and policies to improve health and well-being, and advance community-driven, data-informed development.

The COVID-19 crisis has further highlighted how the social determinants of health and the built environment impact health and well-being. BHEC will meet cities where they are, in order to speed economic recovery, build community trust, and use the lessons of the pandemic to create a healthier, more equitable community investment system throughout the initiative.

More About the Initiative