Center on Society and Health

The SEED Method for Stakeholder Engagement

Testing of a framework for conceptualizing and prioritizing health-related research questions through collaborative, participatory, and consultative stakeholder engagement.

Informed Neighbors Corps

A group of community leaders and residents at a local public housing development working to promote a transparent and resident-centered redevelopment of public housing in the Church Hill North area of Richmond, Virginia.

Mapping Life Expectancy

Media-friendly maps depicting dramatic differences in life expectancy across small distances in U.S. cities and rural areas. Building on an earlier set of five maps released for the RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America, the Center produced maps for 21 additional cities and rural areas across the country, including New York City; Richmond, VA; Chicago; Philadelphia; Tulsa, OK; and Detroit. Maps were released throughout 2015 and 2016.

Bringing Best Practices to Housing Redevelopment

Planning proactively to enhance the health outcomes of housing redevelopment in Richmond, Virginia, and implementing strategies to improve the health of residents.

Educational and Health Outcomes: Neighborhood and Individual Mediators

A secondary data analysis, testing the relationship between education and child health outcomes. Includes a multivariate analysis based on a literature-based conceptual model, and adapted models incorporating predictors suggested by the Engaging Richmond team.

Northside Parental Engagement Study

Qualitative study to identify priorities for middle school students during out-of-school time and make recommendations for continued parental engagement in the study school and Richmond Public Schools.

The Cost of Firearms Violence

Community-engaged research exploring the social and psychological consequences of firearms violence across community and family networks.

The Health of the States

A collaboration with the Urban Institute, the project is a detailed analysis comparing states on dozens of health measures and examining connections between 39 health outcomes and 123 drivers of health across five domains: health systems, health behaviors, socioeconomic conditions, the environment, and public policies and spending. Findings were published in a series of reports.

Income and Health Initiative

A series of issue briefs and an interactive online visual tool on the relationship between income, wealth, and health designed to unpack this complex relationship and offer evidence-based policy recommendations. A collaboration with the Urban Institute.

The Connecting the Dots Initiative

A research and outreach effort to raise awareness among leaders in government and the private sector about the important connections between health and social factors such as education, income, neighborhood, and community.

Health Impact Assessment: Implications of Reduced Food Stamp Eligibility

A rapid-cycle assessment prepared for Congress as it deliberated reauthorization of the 2013 Farm Bill and the health consequences of weakening the SNAP program. The report provided estimates of potential effects of legislative proposal on mortality and the cost of diabetes care in the United States as a result of the proposed legislation.

Education and Health Initiative

A research and outreach effort to raise awareness about the association between education and health among policymakers and stakeholders in national, state, and local settings. Related resources include issue briefs, videos, and online data about the health and economic implications of educational attainment.

The California Poverty Study

A mixed-methods study to understand “outlier” census tracts in California, communities with higher life expectancy than would be predicted based on their poverty rate and other social conditions (e.g., poverty) present in the area, and explain those factors which may contribute to the unexpectedly positive outcomes. The goal is to identify community assets that enhance population health.

Health Impact Assessment: Poultry Litter-to-Energy Facility in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

A comprehensive assessment of the direct and indirect health consequences of placing an energy facility in a rural agricultural community poultry litter management that are of most important to health, including recommendations to maximize health outcomes.

Richmond Community Needs Assessment

An assessment of community priorities in the East End of Richmond, Virginia, conducted by the Engaging Richmond team and Richmond Promise Neighborhood using community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods.

Engaging Richmond

A community-academic partnership based in Richmond's East End, employing mixed methods research to explore the social and environmental factors that influence health.

County Health Calculator

An online simulation tool released in 2011 to explore how health is associated with education and income, and other social determinants of health. By manipulating a slider bar, the user can examine how mortality and the rates and costs of diabetes would be affected if more favorable socioeconomic conditions existed.

Place Matters

A series of reports examining the relationship between place and health in eight communities across the United States. Completed in 2011, the reports examined how health is influenced by demographic, social, and economic conditions of importance to each community.

Project on Societal Distress

The Center's flagship project, completed in 2011. An initiative that documented the prevalence of societal distress in the United States across five domains: food security, housing, health, education, and income. Data on the United States and three states—Michigan, Mississippi, and New Mexico—are provided.

Education and Health Calculator

An interactive online tool to estimate how many deaths would be averted if states or counties had higher education rates. Funded in 2007 as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America.

Education: It Matters More to Health than Ever Before

It matters now more than ever: the divergence in health status between Americans with and without an education is growing larger year by year.

Why Education Matters to Health: Exploring the Causes

Unpacking the relationship: the association between education and health has deeper root causes, such as the economic and social conditions young children experience before reaching school age, the skills and networks they build as they mature, and the jobs and resources they can access later in life.

Health Care: Necessary But Not Sufficient

The role of health care: Improved access to health care (and health insurance) is necessary but not sufficient to counter the effects of an inadequate education. Even in places where health care is guaranteed, people with limited education tend to be sicker.

Education and Health: The Return on Investment

A series of three policy briefs, showing business leaders and state and federal policymakers how investments in education are investments in health—and can potentially lower health care costs.

IHI Graphic Test

A series of issue briefs and an interactive online visual tool on the relationship between income, wealth, and health designed to unpack this complex relationship and offer evidence-based policy recommendations. A collaboration with the Urban Institute.

San Diego Big Data Demonstration Project

An initiative to test how the application of computational modeling to large data sets (“big data”) can support public health and social policy in San Diego, California and explore whether decisions made by the community can benefit from advanced methods in the display, analysis, and modeling of local data spanning health care, public health, social service, the environment, and other domains.

Health Opportunity and Equity (HOPE) Initiative

A project, led by the National Collaborative for Health Equity, to develop a resource to chart progress towards health equity at the national, state, and local level. As part of this project, the Center is providing data and research support for the Texas Health Institute.

Strengthening Early Childhood Programming in Richmond

A project, led by the City of Richmond, Office of Community Wealth Building, to support continued work toward a stronger system of early childhood development and education in Richmond. The VCU Center on Society and Health, in partnership with Engaging Richmond, will provide community-engaged research support to guide policymakers in decisions affecting Richmond's overall system of early childhood development.

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Atlanta, Georgia

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Chicago, Illinois

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Denver, Colorado

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Las Vegas, Nevada

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - New York City

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Eastern North Carolina

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Phoenix, Arizona

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Richmond, Virginia

Mapping Life Expectancy

Mapping Life Expectancy - Tulsa, Oklahoma

Mapping Life Expectancy: Miami

Mapping Life Expectancy - Miami, Florida

Mapping Life Expectancy: Philadelphia

Mapping Life Expectancy - Philadelphia

Richmond Health Equity Report

A report examining social determinants of health in metropolitan Richmond, utilizing data from a variety of sources, and including findings from research conducted by Engaging Richmond. The report was released in April, 2016.

Mapping Life Expectancy: Inland Northwest

Mapping Life Expectancy - Inland Northwest

Mapping Life Expectancy: Detroit

Mapping Life Expectancy - Detroit

Mapping Life Expectancy: Mississippi

Mapping Life Expectancy - Mississippi

Mapping Life Expectancy: Kentucky

Mapping Life Expectancy - Kentucky

Life Expectancy in Northern Virginia

The health of residents in Northern Virginia is among the best in the United States, but it is not uniform. Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, and the cities they surround were the focus of these reports and interactive maps examining differences in life expectancy and other sociodemographic factors in the region.

Mapping Life Expectancy: Cleveland

Mapping Life Expectancy - Cleveland

Mapping Life Expectancy: Trenton

Mapping Life Expectancy - Trenton

Mapping Life Expectancy: St. Louis

Mapping Life Expectancy - St. Louis

Mapping Life Expectancy: El Paso

Mapping Life Expectancy - El Paso

Mapping Life Expectancy: Washington, D.C.

One in a series of life expectancy maps developed to illustrate that opportunities to lead a long and healthy life can vary dramatically by neighborhood. See how life expectancy varies in Washington, D.C. and 20 other cities and rural areas across the country.

California Healthy Places Index

An index that utilizes several social determinants of health to predict life expectancy by census tract in California

For the Sake of All: Advancing Systemic Changes to Promote Healthy School Environments

Research, development, and dissemination of a toolkit that facilitates inclusive, healthy school environments

Mortality Studies

An analysis of mortality trends in California, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Virginia, with a special focus on specific causes driving increases in mortality, the characteristics of places in which mortality is increasing, and stress-related conditions, such as deaths from suicide, drug overdoses, and cardiovascular disease.

Community Conversations

An effort to collect community-level data through multiple “community conversations” in the city of Richmond, VA in order to better understand civic engagement and volunteering at the local level.

Community Vital Signs

A proof-of-concept pilot at 12 primary care practices in Fairfax, VA to integrate clinical and population-level data so that family physicians may identify patients who reside in disadvantaged communities and document how this knowledge influences their care of these patients.

General Electric

Work with General Electric involving an expert advisory panel to provide guidance on priority areas where the business community can achieve meaningful impact on community health and wellbeing.

Community-Engaged Approach to Reducing Pediatric Asthma Disparities in Richmond

A community-engaged approach to reducing pediatric asthma disparities in Richmond, focusing on conducting a needs assessment to develop a multi-level, culturally tailored asthma intervention.

Measuring Healthy Places: The Metropolitan Washington Healthy Places Index

A project, funded by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' Region Forward initiative, to develop a Health Places Index, issue brief, technical report, and several maps for the Metropolitan Washington region.

For the Sake of All: Advancing Systemic Changes to Promote Healthy School Environments

Research, development, and dissemination of a toolkit that promotes inclusive, healthy school environments

Volunteerism in the East End

A study aiming to contribute to knowledge about the processes and impact of volunteering by examining the characteristics of neighborhood‐based and regional volunteers and organizations in Richmond, Virginia’s East End neighborhood.

Regional Scan and Strategies for Community Engagement in Health, Housing, and Community Development

A scan of community engagement efforts and strategies in the City of Richmond and Counties of Chesterfield and Henrico, with recommendations for future engagement endeavors

Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in the United States, 1959-2017

A study examining trends in life expectancy and mortality rates among all 50 states, from 1959 through 2017. Study results were published in a special communication by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), November 26, 2019, and found increases in mortality rates for 35 different causes and continued declines in life expectancy.

Calculating the Costs of Drug Addiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia

A project to better understand the impact of the opioid epidemic, funded by The Virginia Department of Health Division of Prevention and Health Promotion, by assessing the economic repercussions of opioid-related deaths.

Center Study Examines Excess Deaths from COVID and Other Causes

The number of deaths from COVID-19 reported in the news during since March may be underestimating the pandemic's actual death toll. From March 1st, 2020 to January 2nd, 2021, the United States saw 522,368 excess deaths, but only 72% of those were attributed to COVID-19. The other 28% were linked to other causes such as heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease.

Healthy Communities for Youth

Healthy Communities for Youth is a community-based intervention that focuses on youth violence prevention and education with at-risk neighborhoods within Richmond.

Health Equity: How Opportunities for Health are Shaped by Race and Ethnicity

A brief based on a previous center study, “Uneven Opportunities: How Conditions for Wellness Vary Across the Metropolitan Washington Region”, that examined the health of the community at the census tract level, focusing on life expectancy and the factors that shape health.

Highlighting the Work of Richmond’s Community Health Workers and Advocates

The health of our community plays a key role in our personal well-being, which is why the work that community health workers and advocates do is so impactful. With funding from the Wright Center, the Center on Society and Health and Initiatives of Change created an interactive story featuring Richmond’s community health workers and advocates.

The Virginia Wellbeing Dashboard

The Virginia Wellbeing Dashboard uses community data to predict local mental health and substance use disorder outcomes – and explores how we can improve wellbeing through supporting healthier environments for all. The Dashboard can inform systemic, evidence-based approaches to improving outcomes across our communities.

Charting a Course for an Equity-Centered Data System

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the many gaps in today’s public health and health data infrastructure, particularly in regards to people of color and other marginalized populations, and it showed us the many ways in which these challenges perpetuate health inequities. To work towards better health data systems, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems.

Deeply Rooted: History’s Lessons for Equity in Northern Virginia

In 2019, the Center on Society and Health completed a set of studies that documented large geographic inequalities in Northern Virginia. “Deeply Rooted” provides some background to that 2017 study and details a history of exclusion from freedom, homeownership, education, jobs, and civil liberties, and offers suggestions for current policies that can help redress the lasting impact of the past.

Health Equity in Northern Virginia

With support from the Northern Virginia Health Foundation, the Center has completed many projects focused on gaps in life expectancy across census tracts, as well as the roots of those gaps, in the Northern Virginia / D.C. Metro area. Read our latest report, Lost Opportunities: The Persistence of Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in Northern Virginia.

The Healthy Places Index

Everyone should have the opportunity to live a healthy life. The Healthy Places Index combines community characteristics into a single indexed HPI Score, produced at the neighborhood level. These HPI scores can be compared across neighborhoods to paint an overall picture of health and well-being in each community. Read more below about how the HPI was applied to different communities around the country.

The Archive

Past projects (2007-2020) including work under our former name, the VCU Center on Human Needs.

Learning from the COVID-19 Pandemic

To better understand public perception of issues surrounding place-based determinants of health, and identify possible communications opportunities to raise the profile of the importance of place-based determinants, the Center conducted a series of focus groups for the Nova Institute for Health.

The SEED Method for Stakeholder Engagement Updated

The SEED Method - Stakeholder Engagement for Question Prioritization and Action Planning

The Stakeholder Engagement in Question Development and Prioritization method, better known as the SEED Method, is a multi-stakeholder approach to engaging communities in research, problem solving, and action planning. The SEED Method provides a framework for collaborative research and action planning that can be scaled up or down depending on project resources and goals.

PhotoVoice: Engaging Virginia AmeriCorps volunteers

AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation in collaboration with Serve Virginia is partnering with research grantees Virginia Tech and VCU Center on Society and Health to implement a series of PhotoVoice projects with AmeriCorps Seniors and AmeriCorps State and National service members across Virginia.