Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-sector Collaboration
The Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-sector Collaboration white paper presents the views of more than 250 thought leaders from the public health, arts and culture, and community development sectors who were convened in working groups in 2018 and 2019. Their voices are joined by over 500 participants in a national field survey and focus groups, and are supported by findings of a scoping review of arts + public health literature.
With the public health sector as a primary intended audience, the Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-sector Collaboration white paper frames the value of the arts and culture for advancing health and well-being in communities. It offers examples and recommendations for expanding cross-sector collaboration and innovation, with the following goals:
- Advance collaboration among those working at the intersections of art and culture, public health, and community development
- Stimulate upstream interventions—aimed at systems, cultures, and policies—that reduce barriers to health and well-being
- Assert the value of arts and culture for increasing health, wellbeing, and equity in communities
- Foster transformative social change that advances health and wellbeing
This paper is also intended to offer value and guidance to community development, arts and culture, and other allied health sectors by providing examples of impactful cross-sector collaborations that engage arts and culture to address five critical public health issues: collective trauma, racism, social isolation and exclusion, mental health, and chronic disease. These concrete examples inform the paper's recommendations and call to action, which assert the value of the arts and culture for community health transformation, and for advancing the culture of health being envisioned today.
Download the paper here.
- Acknowledgements
This white paper was drafted by a group of individuals working at the intersections of public health, arts and culture, and community development, brought together by the Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America initiative, with support from ArtPlace America and the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation. This paper is one of ten research reports that ArtPlace America has commissioned as part of its work to position arts and culture as a core sector of community planning and development.
- Authors
- External reviewers
- Elaine Auld, Society of Public Health Education
- Jay Baruch, MD, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
- Jennifer Beard, Boston University School of Public Health
- Tom Borrup, Creative Community Builders, University of Minnesota
- Nupur Chaudhury, New York State Health Foundation
- Deborah Cullinan, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Sandro Galea, Boston University School of Public Health
- Ping Ho, UCLArts and Healing
- Kendra Jones, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation
- Liz Lerman, Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
- Javier Nieto, MD, Oregon State University
- Paul Pietsch, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
- Julia Ryan, Local Initiatives Support Corporation
- Dawood H. Sultan, Mercer University Center for Urban Research, Development, Sustainability, and Evaluation
- Eddie Torres, Grantmakers in the Arts
- Lourdes J. Rodriguez, University of Texas at Austin Department of Population Health
- Katie Wehr, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Elizabeth Weist, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
- Frank Woodruff, National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations
Published by: The University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine & ArtPlace America
With partnership and support from the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation
Please cite as: Sonke, J., Golden, T., Francois, S., Hand, J., Chandra, A., Clemmons, L., Fakunle, D., Jackson, M.R., Magsamen, S., Rubin, V., Sams, K., Springs, S. (2019). Creating Healthy Communities through Cross-Sector Collaboration [White paper]. University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine / ArtPlace America.
Copyright © September 2019. University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine / ArtPlace America, LLC. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine / ArtPlace America, LLC.
Graphic design: White Paper by MESH, Infographic by Thomas Young