Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey M.D., M.B.A.
President & CEO
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Living Cities Board of Directors

Living Cities has provided an invaluable platform for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to collaborate with like-minded partners to tackle the systemic, non-medical factors that shape health for people living in low-income communities. Many of Living Cities’ public, private, philanthropic and corporate partners have pursued solutions and invested alongside one another to strengthen communities and address the factors associated with health disparities for decades. Over the past 20 years, Living Cities has helped unlock our ability to align our respective resources and expertise in comprehensive and powerful ways and, in so doing, improve the health and well-being of vulnerable populations.

Since its start, Living Cities has championed approaches that fundamentally strengthen the neighborhoods in which we live, work, learn and play. As I reflect upon its first two decades, Living Cities was right to focus attention and support on expanding affordable housing. And while there’s still much to do to stabilize fragile families in safe and affordable homes, it is also appropriate, going forward, that we embark on a broader set of issues and do so in more concerted, integrated ways. This means investing in new opportunities, using comprehensive financial mechanisms, engaging city officials and civic leaders in meaningful partnerships, supporting new national intermediaries and advancing creative and effective public and private policies that generate wide-scale neighborhood improvements, more and better jobs, a sustainable environment and significant health gains.

Today Living Cities is marshaling the right policy leaders, community change agents, funding partners and investment vehicles to fundamentally expand opportunities for residents to lead healthier lives. Our many years working with Living Cities has influenced how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forges connections between health and non-health sectors to improve the lives of vulnerable populations. Recently it has helped us to partner effectively with the Federal Reserve to build stronger crosswalks between the community development, finance and health arenas. Together, we’re breaking down traditional barriers to advance a common vision in which we factor health into all policies and support projects that, from the start, recognize the powerful relationships between health and economic development. It is exciting to see this and other cross-sector collaborations gain momentum, and we pay tribute to Living Cities’ leadership in charting the course for greater impact.

As we enter the third decade of Living Cities’ remarkable funding collaboration, I am confident that our and our partners’ missions will continue to align and enhance our capacity to help low-income people and communities in ways that we could not achieve independently. We know that Living Cities will continue to be a trusted champion of best practices and a cutting-edge resource for advancing urban policies that work. We applaud Living Cities’ success as a critical broker of innovation and collaboration and look forward to its continued leadership in revitalizing communities in need and securing a strong economic and health future for all Americans.