Neighborhood Poverty and Child Health: Investing in Communities to Improve Childhood Opportunity and Well-Being.

If ZIP code is more important than genetic code in determining one's health and opportunities, how can pediatricians enable healthy and opportunity-rich environments for all children? This paper introduces a broad network of organizations, policies, and financial resources that are working to improve ZIP codes by tackling poverty at the neighborhood level. The mission-driven US community development sector began with the War on Poverty in the 1960s and 70s and comprises a network of finance, real estate, and community-based organizations working together to overturn decades of racially motivated disinvestment, revitalize persistently marginalized, low-income communities, and enhance the lives of the people who live in them. Across the country, thousands of community development corporations, community development financial institutions, affordable housing developers, and regulated for-profit banks together invest over $300 billion annually in affordable housing, childcare and early learning facilities, recreation centers, community clinics, grocery stores, small businesses, and financial services for low-income families and neighborhoods. We present successful examples of community development efforts targeting child health and opportunity and highlight opportunities for pediatricians to advise, collaborate, and partner in order to accelerate and maximize the impact of billions of dollars invested in support of healthier neighborhoods where all children can grow and thrive.

Interprofessional social and emotional intelligence skills training: study findings and key lessons.

Frequently changing demands in health care systems have focused attention on the need for emotional competence (EC) - social and emotional intelligence skills, to adapt efficiently, responsively and productively. This paper reports on findings from a workshop that introduced practical EC skills to nearly 1000 participants in education, medicine, mental health and substance abuse counseling. The holistic EC presentations were designed to teach concepts and principles providing each participant with the opportunity for individualized learning. Ninety percent of the participants rated these presentations as valuable and useful. Following this positive response, the approach was adapted to train health professionals serving diverse populations. This report shares our experience teaching various professionals and describes preliminarily testing of the adapted EC training program on a small group of health professionals, whose responsibilities included teamwork, program design, teaching clients and patients EC basics to support healthy practices and self-care. Their positive response supports the need for expanded study and further investigation.