BUILD Fourth Plain

ABOUT

Evergreen Habitat for Humanity, Clark County Public Health, the City of Vancouver, and over 40 multi-sectoral partners are focused on reducing the health and economic disparities experienced by families living on the Fourth Plain corridor of Vancouver, WA. The goal of this project is to prevent and mitigate the negative impacts of unaffordable, substandard, and unstable housing to positively impact the mental health status of residents living along the corridor. This will be done through four intentional, systemic interventions: strengthening local data infrastructure, local legislative advocacy, policy assessment and implementation, and training local leaders to promote sustainable, healthy neighborhood development.

Health Equity

Health disparities in our focus area are vast and our coalition is working on many of them. For this grant, we focus on the connection between housing and mental health – housing instability can negatively impact many health outcomees, including mental health. By addressing affordable housing and displacement in our focus area, we will positively impact the mental wellness of residents.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

BUILD Fourth Plain will help us implement best-practice policies around anti-displacement and mobilize the community to address involuntary displacement and affordable housing. These policies are bold in their approach to ensuring government agencies are implementing equitable policies that address systemic racism and poverty. Examples include creating a Community Investment Trust to provide local investment opportunities for low-income families, and requiring developers to use an anti-displacement equity lens to analyze how proposed developments could impact communities.

Upstream

Fourth Plain residents have repeatedly voiced housing affordability and stability as chief concerns about their neighborhood during community engagement activities. Economic uncertainty in the housing market coupled with eviction, unhealthy and/or unsafe living conditions, and fears about gentrification and displacement yield increased toxic stress for Fourth Plain families and individuals, many of whom are already facing significant anxiety due to poverty.

Integrated

This initiative was born out of an existing coalition of over 40 local entities with ties to the Fourth Plain corridor. Small businesses, schools, health systems, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies are pooling resources, expertise, and funding to bring equitable and sustainable development to the corridor. Making up the Fourth Plain Coalition, these entities are working toward an equitable, diverse, and thriving Fourth Plain corridor. The Coalition aligns partners and agencies across sectors to promote healthy environments, support families, and strengthen the community.

Local

Beyond taking a locally-driven approach to systems changes by engaging myriad stakeholders within the Fourth Plain corridor, the BUILD Fourth Plain initiative prioritizes identification and development of local leaders. Residents will be given opportunities and tools to increase their own capacity through advocacy, leadership and community development training. Fourth Plain Coalition is currently launching a Community Advisory Committee that provides a permanent mechanism for resident leadership, ground-truthing, and feedback.

Data-Driven

Fourth Plain Coalition is using demographic, community health, and economic data to inform activities and group planning processes. The coalition is exploring ways to streamline data collection and sharing across organizations, and to develop shared metrics each of us can use to measure progress toward coalition priorities. A data sharing agreement with Vancouver Public Schools allows us to tailor coalition strategy recommendations for particular Fourth Plain schools and examine metrics by individual neighborhood school.