Boston: Healthy Neighborhood Equity Fund

In partnership with the Conservation Law Foundation and DUSP Professor Mariana Arcaya, CoLab is leading a Participatory Action Research project investigating the impact of urban development on community health in nine locations across the Boston metropolitan area. In 2016, students and staff worked with an inter-generational, multi-community group of resident researchers to collaboratively design a survey instrument that seeks to understand the context-specific social determinants of physical and mental health and residents’ visions for a healthy community. Residents spent the summer gathering data in their communities, and will participate in a collaborative data analysis process in the fall. As the project continues to grow, CoLab looks forward to working with our community partners to develop and share strategies to use health research as leverage in their efforts to shape the development process, fight displacement and build community health.

The research is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and is being conducted with the following organizational partners: Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, Redefining Our Community, GreenRoots Chelsea, Everett Community Health Partnership, Lynn United for Change, CityLife/VidaUrbana and YMCA SouthCoast.