Equity

Community

Integrity

Collaboration

Advancing community-led action and proven, place-based strategies to ensure health and wellbeing for all.

We envision a nation of healthy, equitable communities where everyone reaches their full potential. As strategic partners in community-led health, we seek to create impact where it is most needed and believe in the power of people to reshape their communities into healthier places to live.

Who We Are

We help communities and those who invest in them turn visions of health into equitable and lasting impact.

Healthy Places by Design brings decades of experience supporting diverse community partnerships and leaders at local, state, regional, and national levels as they transform their communities to improve health and wellbeing for all. Through customized coaching, training, and facilitation, we enhance collaboration, cultivate social connection, and accelerate action—empowering communities to create healthier, more equitable futures rooted in their own strengths.

OUR WORK

Community Action Model

We translated decades of successful initiatives into a comprehensive model to describe the community change process and to guide community action.

In our collaborative work with community members and local leaders, their funders, and other key partners, our Community Action Model guides our way. The model highlights the importance of a community’s context, defines six essential practices for success, and outlines a 3P Action Cycle: Partner, Prepare, and Progress. It represents more than 20 years of learning and refinement by Healthy Places by Design and is a well-tested approach for local investments.

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Our Services

Relationships are the heart of our work, and our bottom line is helping community coalitions and leaders create lasting change at local, state, regional, and national levels. We bring decades of experience supporting diverse community partnerships and leaders in more than 40 states as they implemented equity-focused policies, created welcoming public spaces, and transformed their communities to improve health and wellbeing for all.

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Community Collaboration

Healthy Places by Design deepens the capacity of individuals, groups, and organizations to work together on improving their community’s policies, systems, and environments. Our collaboration services include tailored learning and networking experiences, cohort support, and our unique Collaboration Lab course, all of which build the capacity of current and future leaders to create thriving communities.

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Socially Connected Communities

We are growing a movement to integrate social connection as a vital component of healthy and equitable communities. Through the Socially Connected Communities Network and other services, we help people in communities, philanthropies, and nonprofit organizations weave strategies for social connection into their work.

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Featured Work

Consulting and Advising

Michigan Health Endowment Fund

The Michigan Health Endowment Fund (The Health Fund) engages with communities across Michigan to improve social determinants of health. Recognizing that health leaders benefit from training on collaboration and how to make the most of partnerships, The Health Fund is engaging Healthy Places by Design to offer Collaboration Lab to local leaders.

Community Leadership and Action

Activating Boston

John Hancock partnered with Healthy Places by Design to create Activating Boston, a project to improve wellbeing in Boston by investing in community members, organizations, and partners to increase social connectedness where they live and work. The project’s focus on outdoor spaces was bolstered by the City’s release of the Heat Resilience Solutions for Boston report, which highlighted climate impacts on residents.

Learning and Networking

Transformative Narratives

Narratives convey deep values and beliefs about how the world and our communities operate, and can be harnessed to align values and influence community action. Explore Transformative Narratives for Socially Connected Communities and other resources produced by Healthy Places by Design and the Narratives for Health Initiative.