Head Start- Trauma Smart Kansas City,Head Start- Trauma Smart Kansas City Elevated contrast/brightened face.
Head Start- Trauma Smart Kansas City,Head Start- Trauma Smart Kansas City Elevated contrast/brightened face.

Looking outside the healthcare system for ways to improve health for all.

Legacy Program

An independent, non-partisan group of leaders established to examine the many factors outside of medical care that influence health.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) formed the Commission to Build a Healthier America to investigate why people aren't as healthy as they could be.

The Commission studied prevention, wellness and the broader factors that influence good health and issued 10 recommendations to dramatically improve health for everyone in America. 

Although the official work of the program has came to a close, RWJF is committed to carrying on the legacy of the Commission and its recommendations by integrating the program's work and findings into Foundation programming addressing the social determinants of health.

Commission to Build a Healthier America

commissiononhealth.org

A Messaging Guide

This tool provides guidance on how to message the social determinants of health including best practices in language and choosing words; using data to support, not make, your case; and using pictures to tell your stories.

Learn more

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Todd County, South Dakota, 2019. Leighauna Marshall and Leah Long Crow at the Boys and Girls Club in Mission, South Dakota. The site offers many programs and serves the local community in many ways. The Boys and Girls Club of Rosebud provides supplemental academic services, year round. They are committed to helping youth on their road to high school graduation and beyond. To encourage learning outside of the classroom, they provide enriching programming in: math, reading, science, and computer literacy. Every child who walks through these doors receives a hot and nutritious meal. The Boys and Girls Club believes that art is an expression of the imagination and personal voice and cultivates lifelong creative and critical thinking skills. Their youth take part in art classes every week, and are proud of what they can create with their ideas and their own two hands! Art lessons cover a wide variety of mediums such as such as painting, watercolor, stamping, collage, drawing, and much more. The club also holds special art classes such as ceramics, mural painting, photography, as well as traditional Lakota art projects.

Beyond Healthcare

There is more to health than healthcare—where we live, work, learn, and play can have more to do with how healthy we are than the healthcare we get.

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Recommendations from the Commission to Build a Healthier America

Learn about the three major strategies to improve America’s health that extend beyond medical care.