Building Healthy Communities

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Anthony Iton, MD, JD, MPH, is Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment. He oversees the organization's 10-Year, $1 billion statewide commitment to empower residents in 14 cities across California with the worst health outcomes to fight for changes in their communities that will help them lead healthier lives. Prior to his appointment at The California Endowment, Dr. Iton served as the Director and County Health Officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department.

A healthy community happens when personal, institutional, organizational and environmental resources are available for all to achieve their full health potential. Community happens when people connect with each other. The healthy community encourages interaction. We support efforts to create or expand on the types of systems that make up the healthiest, most equitable communities. In order to achieve this, we need to consider and address the impact that the Social Determinants of Health, the conditions in which we live, age, learn, work and play, have on our health

Ventura County Health Care Agency’s Public Health and Behavioral Health departments continue to partner on a series of forums to promote healthier communities in our county.

In May 2018, we held the first in a series of community Social Determinants of Health forums titled, “Healthy Communities: Promoting Wellness & Achieving Health and Mental Health Equity: Change the Conversation. The focus was on what makes a healthy community with a keynote presentation by William Jamal Miller. Mr. Miller served as the Deputy Director of the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity (OHE) and the State’s lead advisor on issues related to reducing health and mental health disparities and achieving health equity for all Californians.

In November 2018, we followed up with the second forum titled “Designing a Healthier Community: Join the Conversation” with Dr. Richard J. Jackson. Dr. Jackson is Professor emeritus at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA, and has served as California’s State Health Officer. Dr. Jackson made the case that the rapidly deteriorating public health of our citizens is linked directly to nearly half-a-century of unhealthy community planning and design decisions, and how this affects key public health indices, such as obesity, diabetes, heart, asthma, cancer and depression.

On March 2020, we hosted the third and final forum of the series: “Building Healthy Communities: You can help build a healthier community!” Our guest speaker was Dr. Anthony Iton from The California Endowment. Dr. Iton’s primary interest is the health of disadvantaged populations and the contributions of race, class, wealth, education, geography, and employment to health status. He has asserted that in every public health area of endeavor, be it immunizations, chronic disease, HIV/AIDS, STDs, obesity, or even disaster preparedness, public health practitioners must recognize that they are confronted with the enduring consequences of structural poverty, institutional racism and other forms of systemic injustice.

Addressing Social Determinants of Health require the engagement of all sectors of a community. It takes a lot of hard work. But communities are transforming in ways that put better health within everyone's reach. Be part of the solution and commit to building healthier communities in Ventura County through individual, organizational and community wide effort and engagement.

Do you want to help build a healthier community in Ventura County?

A healthy community depends on human, institutional, organizational and environmental resources available within the community. Community happens when people connect with each other. The healthy community encourages interaction. We support efforts to create or expand on the types of systems that make up the healthiest, most equitable communities. For instance:

• Consideration of health and equity in decisions about how communities are planned, designed and built; and that encourage healthy living.
• Local data that help illustrate what a healthy community can look like, identify local gaps and challenges, set common goals for improvement.
• Networks of people and organizations who appreciate the many social, economic and environmental factors that shape health - and want to make a difference.

These efforts require the engagement of all sectors of a community. It takes a lot of hard work. But communities are transforming in ways that put better health within everyone's reach. Being part of the solution means we commit ourselves to building healthier communities through individual, organizational and community wide effort and engagement.

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All Social Determinants of Health Events

• Social Determinants of Health Series: Building Healthy Communities, March 27, 2020
• Social Determinants of Health Series: Designing a Healthier Community - Join the Conversation, November 16, 2018
• Social Determinants of Health Series: Healthy Communities - Promoting Wellness & Achieving Health and Mental Health Equity, May 2, 2018‍