PHEAL Principles

From Planning for Health Equity, Advocacy, and Leadership (PHEAL) - Addressing public health inequities has never been more pressing than now. Planners, architects, designers, urbanists, placemakers, civil engineers, artists, culture-bearers, arts and culture practitioners, landscape architects, real estate developers, public health professionals, and public servants must embrace and advance an agenda for health equity. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, "health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.” Furthermore, planning, design, and distribution of land uses play a significant role in health outcomes. In fact, our ZIP code matters even more than our own genetic code when it comes to health outcomes and life expectancy. The places where we live, work, play, learn, and age provide or preclude opportunities to achieve optimal health.  

Unquestionably, everyone deserves an optimal well-being and access to the resources needed to thrive. For this very reason, this blueprint advocates for centering the voices of those who have been traditionally underrepresented in planning processes. This omission has resulted in policies and plans that have severed and devalued communities, actively denied them opportunities to build wealth, and created conditions that produce adverse health outcomes and hamper well-being.