A Connecticut gas station will be converted into a community health center.

January 12, 2012

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


A new report suggests that town planning and public health must be integrated to ensure healthy communities.

January 31, 2012

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


A private ambulance company in India charges premiums to middle-class users in order to subsidize care for the poor.

November 04, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


African Center for Cities

University of Capetown
The African Centre for Cities (ACC) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching program focused on quality scholarship regarding the dynamics of unsustainable urbanization processes in Africa, with an eye on identifying systemic responses.

Filed under: Organizations


Annual Population Survey UK

Economic and Social Data Service
The Annual Population Survey (APS) represents a major survey which comprises key variables from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), all the LFS boosts and the APS boost. For the first time the APS will provide survey data that can produce reliable estimates at local authority level. Key topics in the survey include education, employment, health and ethnicity.

The APS combines results from five different sources: the Labour Force Survey; the English Local Labour Force Survey; the Welsh Labour Force Survey; the Scottish Labour Force Survey; and the Annual Population Survey Boost Sample.

Filed under: Data


British Household Panel Survey

Economic and Social Data Service
The British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) is carried out by ISER at the University of Essex. The main objective of the survey is to further understanding of social and economic change at the individual and household level in Britain, to identify, model and forecast such changes, their causes and consequences in relation to a range of socio-economic variables.
The BHPS provides information on household organiaation, employment, accommodation, tenancy, income and wealth, housing, health, socio-economic values, residential mobility, marital and relationship history, social support, and individual and household demographics.

Filed under: Data


Center for Health and the Social Sciences

University of Chicago
Center encouraging interdisciplinary health and social science research at the University of Chicago.  

Filed under: Organizations


Center for Urban and Community Studies

University of Toronto
The Center for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS), established in 1964, promotes and disseminates multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on urban issues.

The Centre's activities contribute to scholarship on questions relating to the social, economic and physical well-being of people who live and work in urban areas large and small, in Canada and around the world.

Filed under: Organizations


Center for Urban Research and Policy—Columbia University

Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs
The Center for Urban Research and Policy (CURP) has been established at a time of profound economic, political, and social change. The civic discourse has become increasingly anti-urban with fewer opportunities for informed non-partisan dialogue. Political leaders and ordinary citizens need reliable policy research, training in technology, and opportunities for public discussion on issues of concern to America’s cities. As an internationally known research university located in New York City, Columbia has a special responsibility to make a substantial contribution to these efforts. CURP promises to fulfill this responsibility by becoming a national resource for education, research, and discussion on issues confronting America’s cities. The Center is engaged in an ambitious program of training, research, and public discussion.

The need for the Center is increasingly apparent in the visible problems and repeated fiscal crises of our cities. Opportunities are evident in the renewed interest in domestic public policy and by an increased willingness by various sectors of society to “do something.” However, greater voice and focus and better dialogue and data are required to create a capacity for more informed discussions which will help influence the larger national agenda in effective policy-making. With the support of the entire Columbia community, the Center and its programs draw attention to issues confronting urban America and prepare the nation’s leaders for the challenge of solving these problems. 

Filed under: Organizations


Centre for Research on Inner City Health

St. Michael's Hospital
The Centre for Research on Inner City Health (CRICH) is dedicated to reducing health inequities through innovative research that supports social change. We conduct research to better understand the linkages between poverty, social exclusion, and poor health. And we work in partnership with community agencies and decision-makers to evaluate population health interventions to improve health outcomes for inner city populations.

Filed under: Organizations


City of Chicago Data Portal

The City of Chicago’s Data Portal is dedicated to promoting access to government data and encouraging the development of creative tools to engage and serve Chicago's diverse community. Here you’ll find essential data presented in easy-to-use formats to help Chicagoans keep track of how their government is performing and build innovative applications to benefit residents and visitors alike.

Filed under: Data


CityMatCH

CityMatCH is a freestanding national membership organization of city and county health departments' maternal and child health (MCH) programs and leaders representing urban communities in the United States. The mission of CityMatCH is to improve the health and well-being of urban women, children and families by strengthening the public health organizations and leaders in their communities.

Filed under: Organizations


DataPlace

DataPlace is an easy-to-use source of U.S. housing and demographic data from the census tract to the national level. The cite currently contains data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, as well as home mortgage, Section 8, and housing needs data. There is useful directory and users can create their own maps. Included topics are mortgage lending, income and employment, housing, health, social and demographic, education, arts, and federal expenditures.

Filed under: Data


Economic and Social Data Service

The Economic and Social Data Service is a national data archiving and dissemination service in the UK which came into operation in January 2003. The service is a jointly-funded initiative sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

The ESDS is a distributed service, based on a collaboration between four key centres of expertise:

UK Data Archive (UKDA), University of Essex
Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) , University of Essex
Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), University of Manchester
Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), University of Manchester

These centres work collaboratively to provide preservation, dissemination, user support and training for an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes. The ESDS provides an integrated service offering enhanced support for the secondary use of data across the research, learning and teaching communities.

Filed under: Data


Global Health Initiative

University of Chicago
The University of Chicago Global Health Initiative's mission is to collaborate with communities locally and globally to democratize education, increase service learning opportunities, and advance novel, transdisciplinary, and sustainable solutions to improve health and well being while reducing global health disparities and inequities. 

Filed under: Organizations


Carolyn Stephens examines the relationship between inequality and urban health in Environment and Urbanization. 

April 22, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


Incorporating public health into urban planning.

June 11, 2012

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program

Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
The Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program was established in 1996 under the direction of William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor. The Program seeks to analyze the effects of increasing urban poverty and joblessness plaguing the inner cities and to ensure that scholarly research plays a critical role in the creation and implementation of national public policy concerning the poor.
Through conferences,seminars, and research activities, the Program agenda focuses on the various social forces and ecological factors that contribute to the marginalization and social isolation of urban populations.

Filed under: Links


Journal of Policy Analysis & Management (JPAM)

Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)
APPAM founded the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) in 1981 through the merger of two other journals – Policy Analysis and Public Policy. Wiley-Blackwell (formerly John Wiley & Sons) has published JPAM since 1981. The current contract for publishing JPAM runs until the end of 2016. JPAM is published quarterly and is a peer-reviewed research journal. The creation of JPAM fulfilled one of the primary reasons for APPAM's existence: the dissemination of the highest quality, multidisciplinary research in public policy and management. As the Association's journal of record, JPAM's ultimate purpose is building a professional community of scholars and practitioners devoted to more effective policy analysis and public management.

Filed under: Journals


Journal of the American Planning Association

American Planning Association
Since 1935, the quarterly Journal of the American Planning Association has published research, commentaries, and book reviews useful to practicing planners, policy makers, scholars, students, and citizens of urban, suburban, and rural areas. JAPA publishes only peer-reviewed, original research and analysis. It aspires to bring insight to planning the future, to air a variety of perspectives, to publish the highest quality work, and to engage readers.

Filed under: Journals


Living in a poor neighborhood is harmful to residents' health.

December 02, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS)

Rand
The Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) is a longitudinal study of families in Los Angeles County, California, and of the neighborhoods in which they live. Research suggests that safe, supportive neighborhoods are important for children, teens, and adults. But what makes a neighborhood a positive place to live? L.A. FANS is addressing this questions by comparing the lives of children and adults in a broad range of neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County. The L.A.FANS focuses on: neighborhood, family, and peer effects on children's development; effects of welfare reform at the neighborhood level; and residential mobility and neighborhood change. The first wave of the L.A.FANS was fielded between 2000 and 2001. Fieldwork for Wave 2 of L.A.FANS was conducted between 2006 and 2008. 

Filed under: Data


Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy

Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy is a vibrant intellectual community of faculty, master's and Ph.D. students, researchers, and administrative staff striving to improve public policy and practice in the areas of health care, human services, criminal justice, inequality, education, and labor. The work of the Center draws on the worlds of scholarship, policy, and practice to address pressing questions. Over the last twenty years, the Wiener Center has been an influential voice in domestic policy through faculty work on community policing, welfare reform, youth violence, inner city poverty, youth and the low-wage labor market, American Indian economic and social development, and medical error rates.

Filed under: Organizations


Mothers Alone : Poverty and the Fatherless Family, 1955-1966 UK

Economic and Social Data Service
The study explores the lives and experiences of mothers living alone: unmarried, separated, divorced or widowed. The study posed two questions: what is poverty and who are the fatherless? The study asked about housing conditions, homelessness, diet and nutrition, family relations, marriage and marital breakdowns, and the levels and adequacy of community and national assistance. The interviewees were asked about detailed indicators of poverty and also the subjective, felt experience of poverty. The study examined problems families faced as a consequence of both low income and lack of fathers, the causes of their circumstances, and the adequacy of assistance provided by community and national sources. 

Filed under: Data


University of Chicago researchers find that moving low-income individuals to lower-poverty neighborhoods leads to significant improvements to their health. 

October 21, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


National Poverty Center

University of Michigan
The National Poverty Center (NPC) was established in the fall of 2002 as a university-based, nonpartisan research center. We conduct and promote multidisciplinary, policy-relevant research on the causes and consequences of poverty and provide mentoring and training to young scholars.

Located within the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the NPC benefits from close proximity to an extensive and diverse group of University of Michigan-based scholars from such units as the Institute for Social Research; the Department of Economics; and the Schools of Education, Public Health, and Social Work. In addition, the NPC draws on the work of over forty nationally recognized scholars from around the country, our Senior Research Affiliates.

Major funding for the NPC is provided through a cooperative agreement with the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. University of Michigan funders include the Ford School, the Office of the Vice-President for Research, the Institute for Social Research, and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

Filed under: Organizations


New York Community Health Survey GIS Data

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
The Community Health Survey (CHS) shapefiles contain aggregated city-wide rates by United Hospital Fund neighborhoods. The health topics cover a number of areas including physical activity, diabetes, obesity, mental health, and sexual risk factors.

Filed under: Data


New York Epidemiology Services Neighborhood Statistics Datasets

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Health statistics data sets on adult hospitalization, childhood lead poisoning, demographics, health care and preventative services, health status, maternal and child health, and mortality

Filed under: Data


Panel Study of Income Dynamics

University of Michigan
The Panel Study of Income Dynamics - PSID - is the longest running longitudinal household survey in the world. The study began in 1968 with a nationally representative sample of over 18,000 individuals living in 5,000 families in the United States. Information on these individuals and their descendants has been collected continuously, including data covering employment, income, wealth, expenditures, health, marriage, childbearing, child development, philanthropy, education, and numerous other topics. The PSID is directed by faculty at the University of Michigan, and the data are available on this website without cost to researchers and analysts.

The data are used by researchers, policy analysts, and teachers around the globe. Over 3,000 peer-reviewed publications have been based on the PSID. Recognizing the importance of the data, numerous countries have created their own PSID-like studies that now facilitate cross-national comparative research. The National Science Foundation recognized the PSID as one of the 60 most significant advances funded by NSF in its 60 year history.

Filed under: Data


Policy Studies Journal

American Political Science Association; Policy Studies Organization
As the principal outlet for the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association and for the Policy Studies Organization (PSO), the Policy Studies Journal (PSJ) is the premier channel for the publication of public policy research. PSJ is best characterized as an outlet for theoretically and empirically grounded research on policy process and policy analysis. More specifically, we aim to publish articles that advance public policy theory, explicitly articulate its methods of data collection and analysis, and provide clear descriptions of how their work advances the literature.

Filed under: Journals


Selected Facilities and Program Sites

New York City Department of City Planning
Data providing the location, type and capacity of public and private community facilities in New York City, including schools, parks, libraries, public safety, day care, foster care, special needs housing, health and mental health facilities and programs.

Filed under: Data


SickWeather is a crowdsourced map of illness around the world. 

February 16, 2012

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


Sociology Data Set Server

A collection of ICPSR sociological data.

Filed under: Data


Two new studies challenge the link between food deserts and obesity. 

April 24, 2012

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


UN report finds that both over and under nutrition are serious problems in world cities. 

August 23, 2012

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


Urban Health Initiative

University of Chicago
Partnership of individuals and groups in the Chicago medical community to improve the long-term health of people on Chicago's South Side.

Filed under: Organizations


West Philadelphia residents launch neighborhood-based health network to support healthy diet and exercise among community members.

June 23, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


In Environment and Urbanization, David Sattherthwaite questions why urban health is so poor, even in "developed" cities.

April 26, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy


"Why Race and Place Matter," a report just released by PolicyLink, examines the impact race and location have on health. 

April 18, 2011

Filed under: New & Noteworthy