In collaboration with the Louisiana Public Health Institute and the Neighborhoods Partnership Network with funding from the Kresge Foundation, Concordia assisted Healthy New Orleans Neighborhoods (HNON) to develop a systemic approach for gauging neighborhood health in New Orleans. Since most of what impacts the health of communities are influences beyond health care, such as family income, quality education, and a healthy neighborhood environment, the team developed six community indicators–social, health, education, economy, environment, and transportation–to holistically look at the health of each neighborhood compared to the rest of the city.
The project included the development of the HNON website which enables citizens to look up statistics in each of the six indicators for every neighborhood in the city. For example, the health category looks at cancer, diabetes, heart disease, exercise and nutrition, etc. while the environmental category looks at air quality, access to grocery stores and farmers markets, and recreation facilities. Graphic gauges within each section indicate green, yellow, or red status depending on how the neighborhood value compares to other U.S. counties.
