Social and Economic Drivers of Health
The social, environmental, and economic factors that shape our lives —and the policies that create those conditions—play a crucial role in our health.
Community Catalyst supports community leaders, builds multi-sector partnerships that span health care, social service organizations, advocacy organizations, faith communities, business leaders, policymakers, and others; and advocates for just, equitable policies to expand how the health care sector addresses the social and economic drivers of health
Our strategies include:
- Breaking down silos: We facilitate collaboration between advocates and institutions working in health care and other sectors to improve social and economic drivers of health.
- Supporting community action: We provide funding, training, and technical assistance to community-based partners seeking to work with health care systems to address social and economic drivers of health.
- Developing consumer and community leadership through advocacy: We provide strategic coaching to advocacy groups and community-based organizations using our System of Advocacy approach. We offer training curricula on social and economic drivers that local leaders can adapt for use in their communities.
- Advocating for public policy and practice change: We promote collaborative initiatives among governments, institutions, businesses and communities that integrate health care and social services funding and programs to address social and economic drivers of health.
- Investing in equity: We also advocate for incentives to increase health system engagement and spending on SDOH, particularly in ways that target priorities identified by neighborhoods and demographic groups that have experienced historic and current injustices.
Our policy issues include:
- Promoting innovative payment/delivery arrangements that incentivize addressing the social and economic drivers of health.
- Supporting community benefit expectations for nonprofit health care providers that include the social and economic drivers of health.
- Encouraging providers and insurers to make investments that address the local community’s health priorities.