Community Resilience Equitable Practices for an Uncertain Future

In this fifth volume of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health series, Community Resilience: Equitable Practices for an Uncertain Future highlights the importance of resilience, or the set of assets that allow a person or place to recover when adversity hits, by illustrating the policies and stories of lived experience surrounding health equity. Whether that adversity is acute--such as an environmental disaster or an abuse of police power--or chronic--such as that engendered by poverty and racism--local innovation and community engagement are key to nurturing resilience and promoting health equity.

Community Resilience positions storytelling and narrative shifts as essential to influencing our perceptions of who deserves empathy or support, and who does not, by examining the systemic barriers to resilience and the opportunities to reshape the landscape to overcome those barriers. The central message of this volume--across immigration or imprisonment, opioids or trauma, housing or disaster preparedness--is that we must act intentionally and allow a shift in power in order to make progress.

Alonzo L. Plough, PhD, MPH, MA, is the chief science officer and vice president of Research-Evaluation-Learning at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Plough has had a distinguished career in public health practice, academia, and philanthropy. His work focuses on improving health and well-being, and achieving health equity. Plough serves as a board member for many health and social welfare organizations.

Table of Contents

Introduction

SECTION I INTRODUCTION: SHIFTING THE NARRATIVE
Chapter 1 - The Storytellers
Chapter 2 - Data and Lived Experiences Both Inform Well-Being
Chapter 3 - A New Narrative on Gun Violence
Chapter 4 - Immigrants in America: Stories of Trauma and Resilience
Chapter 5 - The Toxic Impact of Life Behind Bars

SECTION II INTRODUCTION: SYSTEMIC BARRIERS TO RESILIENCE
Chapter 6 - Responding to the Opioid Epidemic
Chapter 7 - Adressing Trauma and Building Resilience in Children: Science and Practice
Chapter 7 Spotlight - Texting Through a Crisis
Chapter 8 - Home, the Heart of Place

SECTION III INTRODUCTION: RESHAPING THE CONDITIONS OF PLACES TO FOSTER RESILIENCE
Chapter 9 - Health Care Institutions Step Up to Support Resilient Communities
Chapter 10 - Strengthening the Response to Disasters and Trauma
Chapter 10 Spotlight - Inland from the Coast
Chapter 10 Spotlight - Social Infrastructure as a Pathway to Resilience
Chapter 11 - Houston Comes Together After Hurricane Harvey
Chapter 11 - Spotlight: Helping Those Who Need It Most
Chapter 12 - The Environmental Justice Imperative
Chapter 12 Spotlight - Multisolving to Advance Climate Goals

SECTION IV INTRODUCTION: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS THAT DRIVE INNOVATION
Chapter 13 - Digital Data, Ethical Challenges
Chapter 13 Spotlight - The HUMAN Project--Using Mega-Data to Analyze Health
Chapter 14 - Investing in Social Determinants: Fresh Perspectives on the Returns

Conclusion

Acknowledgements
Index