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NEWS & EVENTS |
RECENT NEWS
September 2022
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Report: Naivasha Climate Change Vulnerability Report
We report on the knowledge shared by residents in Naivasha about climate vulnerabilities and their suggestions for policy and planning proposals to achieve greater climate justice. The data collection described here was led by Muungano wa Wanavijiji (Muungano) and SDI-Kenya (SDI-K), as part of the Voices of Just Climate Action programme. This program aims to lift-up the voices of civil society, particularly women and youth in Kenya, in order to co-creates locally relevant, inclusive, and climate justice solutions. |
May 2022
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Study: Urban Climate Justice, Human Health, and Citizen Science in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements
Urban informal settlements or slums are among the most vulnerable places to climate-change-related health risks. Yet, little data exist documenting environmental and human health vulnerabilities in slums or how to move research to action. This study describes the participatory processes used by citizen scientists to generate data and move evidence into immediate actions to protect human health and a draft a long-range, climate justice strategy. The processes used to create the Mukuru Special Planning Area redevelopment plan suggest that participatory, citizen-led urban science can inform local efforts for health equity and global goals of climate justice. |
March 2022
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Report: Mukuru Special Planning Area Redevelopment Plan Report
The Mukuru Special Area Plan is aimed to provide the basis for guiding development and enhancing appropriate investment in Mukuru, it covers an area of 689 acres for a period of 10 years from 2022-2032. The plan provides for comprehensive and intensive change of the planning area through designation of transport arteries, public purpose and utilities areas, establishing hierarchical and functional road networks, and identifying environmentally sensitive areas for protection and conservation. |
June 2021
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Advance Peace featured in the Washington Post
A recent Washington Post article highlighted how gun violence has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, and explores how organizations like Advance Peace can help mediate this issue. |
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Prof. Jason Corburn, Advance Peace CEO DeVone Boggan, Advance Peace COO Khaalid Muttaqi and Other Researchers Release Article on the Advance Peace Model
"This descriptive article highlights the inner-practices of a trauma-informed, healing-centered, urban gun violence reduction program called Advance Peace. We find that the Advance Peace model uses a unique curriculum called the Peacemaker Fellowship, that offers intensive mentorship, caring, and ‘street love’ to youth at the center of gun violence. The Advance Peace approach is one public safety model that may help young people of color heal from the traumas that contribute to gun violence while also reducing gun crime in urban neighborhoods." |
MARCH 2021
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Berkeley study: California gun violence program saves lives, taxpayers millions
"New research from the University of California, Berkeley has the potential to shift the public debate around police reform, and to reimagine public safety models that rely on policing to reduce gun violence in America’s urban cities." |
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Study: Advance Peace reducing gun violence in Stockton, Sacramento
"Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley studying a gun violence reduction program found it has helped decrease gun homicides and assaults in several California cities and saved taxpayers millions of dollars while serving as a model for police reform." |
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Study: Gun Violence Prevention Program Saves Lives, Money; Provides Model for Police Reform
"The controversial anti-gun violence organization Advance Peace Stockton is being recognized as a catalyst to reducing gun violence. "It's just a very difficult very, very controversial group of people to work with. But, with a little attention, a lot of effort and focused management of resources into those areas we pretty much seen a drop in the number of engagements that the young men are involved in," says Nuri Muhammad, Director for Advance Peace Stockton." |
February 2021
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Director and Professor Jason Corburn contributed to a new global report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, titled A Life-course Approach to Hygiene. The report emphasizes that while hygiene is essential for well-being, the ability of many communities to practice healthy behaviors is shaped by historic inequalities, lack of public policies and discrimination. The report suggests that a life-course approach, including a focus on environmental conditions, can reduce disease burdens and quality of life for the billions facing inequitable burdens from lack of adequate water and sanitation. A video accompanying the report can be found here.
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January 2021
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Director and Professor Jason Corburn and research assistant Amanda Fukutome publish, Advance Peace Stockton, 2018-20 Evaluation Report. This report evaluates the impacts of the Advance Peace gun violence program in Stockton The street outreach workers of Advance Peace were considered ‘essential workers’ by the Governor, and have played a crucial role reducing gun violence during COVID-19. The key findings include that Advance Peace Stockton:
(1) Contributed to a 21% reduction in gun homicides and assaults over 2 years, & 38% reduction in gun homicides compared to averages dating back to 2015; (2) Saved 21 lives by reducing the 2 year number of gun homicides from 85 to 64; (3) Interrupted 44 imminent gun violence conflicts that were likely to be shootings or murders; (4) Mediated 517 community conflicts that could have escalated into gun violence; (5) Saved taxpayers between $42-110 Million over 2 years; (6) Of the 34 clients served, 94% are still alive, 71% had no new arrests, and 38% got a job while part of the Advance Peace, Peacemaker Fellowship. |
SEPTEMBER 2020
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CGHC & the city of richmond Release health in all policies progress report"The Health in All Policies (HiAP) ordinance and strategy was passed in 2014 to address health inequities in the City of Richmond by implementing the Richmond General Plan policies and actions. HiAP is an over-arching framework to guide city policy, practices, and partnerships that promote health and well-being for all residents. HiAP starts from AGENDA REPORT September 29, 2020 Page 2 of 4 the premise that health and well-being begins in neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and playgrounds, not a doctors’ office. While access to good quality, regular and affordable health care is essential, too often, this helps with disease and injury management but does not address upstream factors that lead to morbidity and mortality. What we know is that preventing disease, injury, stress, disability, and early death has to do with the factors in the built and social environment such as; high-quality, affordable housing, safe streets, good jobs, high performing schools, age-friendly parks and recreation spaces, cultural expression, and clean air. Three key ideas continue to shape Richmond’s approach to health equity: Structural Racism, Toxic Stress and Targeted Universalism. The HiAP ordinance and strategy focuses on 6 HiAP Intervention Areas: Governance and Leadership, Economic Development and Education, Full Service and Safe Communities, Residential and Built Environment, Environmental Health and Justice, and Quality Accessible Health, Home, and Services.
The HiAP progress report focuses on these six intervention areas and initiatives driven by City Departments and Community Based Organizations. The report identifies metrics through program and department activities, population health indicators, and community perception of services and living conditions in Richmond. The progress report uses the following methods for evaluation: interviews and focus groups, review of local health data, and survey data analysis" (City of Richmond). |
August 2020
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Historic redlining and urban health today in u.s. citiesAnthony Nardone, Joey Chiang and Jason Corburn publish article on redlining and urban health in U.S. cities. "This study explores the potential associations between historic redlining and urban health outcomes in nine U.S. cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Oakland, San Francisco, and St. Louis. We hypothesize that historic redlining has influenced current racial and ethnic health inequities that are spatially patterned by neighborhoods. Using shape files for redlining in nine cities, U.S. Census data and the Centers for Disease Control, 500 Cities Project health data, we tested for the strength of the association between historically redlined neighborhoods and 14 health outcomes today. We found associations between historically redlined neighborhoods and current day prevalence of cancer, asthma, poor mental health, and people lacking health insurance. We also found that residents in historically redlined areas of Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami, and the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan areas were nearly twice as likely to have poor health than in nonredlined areas. Spatial racial segregation and poor health remain critical environmental justice issues impacting communities of color." To read more, please click here.
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APRIL 2020
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CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE CAN PROMOTE CITIES FOR ALL: NEW RESEARCH BY CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTHY CITIESCOVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to rebuild our cities and adopt new policies to ensure they are more inclusive for persons with disabilities, according to IURD Director Jason Corburn and leader of the Inclusive Cities Lab Dr. Victor Pineda, in a new article they co-authored in the Journal of Urban Health, entitled “Disability, Urban Health Equity, and the Coronavirus Pandemic: Promoting Cities for All.”
“The pandemic highlights existing inequities but is also galvanizing leaders and activists to generate new, more inclusive cities for all,” says Dr. Pineda, also a lecturer at UC Berkeley, President of World Enabled and leader of the Global Compact on Cities for All. According to the World Health Organization and the World Bank, there are more than 1 billion people living with a disability, and by 2050, 940 million people living in cities may be living with a disability. Persons with disabilities are four times as likely to be adversely impacted during an emergency such as the novel coronavirus pandemic, potentially creating and exacerbating urban inequalities. “Our cities, not people, are disabled, “ says Corburn. Poor urban planning, lack of inclusive policies and failures to implement universal design makes persons living with disabilities more susceptible when an infection spreads. “Their caregiving places and helpers may be disrupted, job and employment loss may occur, accessing food and other services can become that much harder,” says Professor Corburn. The article includes specific recommendations including: (1) making all information and communications accessible to all. (2) Ensuring persons with disabilities (PWD) and disabled persons organizations (DPOs) are at the center of program and policy decisions and implementation. (3) ensuring that all persons with disabilities have continued access to essential services, including healthcare and personal assistants. (4) immediate economic supports to PWDs to ensure they do not fall into poverty and mitigate any job losses and/or movement restrictions. (5) more strict enforcement of anti-discrimination and labor protections for PWDs. Dr. Pineda has organized and is leading a weekly webinar with participants from around the world, focused on generating immediate and long-term solutions to the pandemic and more inclusive cities, called “Equity and Access in the Time of Pandemic.” “My work through IURD and World Enabled is aiming to ensure that cities, decision-makers and researchers listen to people on the ground, and collectively generate new strategies that can work,” says Dr. Pineda. “We need a manifesto and global action for greater urban inclusion now and moving forward.” For more information: Dr. Victor Pineda, victor@worldenabled.org |
Jan 2020
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PROFESSOR JASON CORBURN AND THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTHY CITIES COMPLETES REPORT FOR ADVANCE PEACE StocktonProfessor Jason Corburn and the Center for Global Healthy Cities have completed a report for Advance Peace Stockton, entitled, Advance Peace Stockton 2018 - 2019 Progress Report. This report summarizes the key Learning and Evaluation Findings for Stockton Advance Peace, from July 2018 through June 2019. The learning & evaluation team focuses on gathering and analyzing data to support the development and effectiveness of Advance Peace. By emphasizing learning, the UCB team aims to feed-back data to Advance Peace in a timely way and to center the voices and experiences of those working and living with gun violence. This report includes, to the extent possible, the voices of outreach workers and community members impacted by the first year of Advance Peace Stockton. Download the report here.
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september 2019
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CGHC affiliate DANIEL RODRIGUEZ CONTRIBUTES RESEARCH TO A LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON BIKE COMMUTINGCenter for Global Healthy Cities affiliate and College of Environmental Design Professor of City & Regional Planning Daniel Rodriguez, as part of a team of five researchers, contributed to a study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity this week titled, “Municipal Investment in Off-Road Trails and Changes in Bicycle Commuting in Minneapolis, Minnesota Over 10 Years: A Longitudinal Repeated Cross-Sectional Study” on the effect of key development and expansion of an off-road, multipurpose trail system in Minneapolis between 2000 and 2007 to understand whether infrastructure investments were associated with increases in commuting by bicycle. Read more here.
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AUGUST 2019
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Affiliate M. reza shirazi publishes second article about hunters point shipyard project reviewOn July 31, 2019, Dr. Reza Shirazi published an op-ed about the UC-led independent review of the Hunters Point Shipyard project. Read the op-ed here.
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MAY 2019
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urban environmental justice: bayview hunters point community-university symposiumOn May 9, 2019, IURD in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University and Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) community organized the Symposium “Confronting Urban Injustice: Bayview-Hunters Point, A Community-University Symposium”. The symposium brought together community activists, non-profit organizations, journalists, and academics and discussed multiple urban injustices afflicting the BVHP neighborhood. This neighborhood that has been suffering from environmental, racial, economic and health inequity for decades, is now home to the biggest redevelopment project in San Francisco, known as the Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Redevelopment Project. Remediation activities related to this project were revealed to be fraudulent, community members and activists are fighting for and demanding transparency, community oversight, and environmental justice.
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PROFESSOR JASON CORBURN AND THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTHY CITIES COMPLETES REPORT FOR ADVANCE PEACE SACRAMENTOProfessor Jason Corburn and the IURD have completed a report for Advance Peace Sacramento, entitled, Advance Peace Sacramento, Learning & Evaluation 2018 Progress Report. Advance Peace, www.advancepeace.org, is a national non-profit that works to reduce gun violence in urban neighborhoods by providing mentoring and transformational opportunities to those at the center of community firearm hostilities. The UC Berkeley researchers found that the program’s street outreach workers, called Neighborhood Change Agents, engaged over 2,800 people in just six months of work in Sacramento. The program mediated 94 community conflicts, interrupted 17 potentially retaliatory gun violence conflicts & responded to another 20 shootings – preventing further escalation of gun violence. Advance Peace Sacramento invested over 3,600 hours into street-level engagement and gun violence interruption in just the last six months of 2018. Download the report here.
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Director Corburn, Blaise Nguendo-Yongsi, Waleska Teixeira Caiaffa, Tolu Oni, and Gerard Salem, publish an article on the challenges and opportunities of urban health education.link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-019-00366-0"On a planet of cities, a new cadre of researchers and professionals are needed to understand and address the human health challenges of the twenty-first century urbanization. How to prepare these action-researchers, decision makers, activists, and engaged citizens is the question addressed in this commentary."
Read the article here. |
March 2019
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IURD VISITING SCHOLAR DR. M. REZA SHIRAZI, CO-EDITs A BOOK ENTITLED: URBAN SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY: THEORY, POLICY AND PRACTICE.This ground breaking volume raises radical critiques and proposes innovative solutions for social sustainability in the built environment. Itconsists of original contributions from academics and experts within the field and explores the significance of social sustainability from different perspectives such as urban policy, transportation and mobility, urban space and architectural form, housing, urban heritage, neighbourhood development, and urban governance. See here for more information.
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JANUARY 2019
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center for global healthy cities Completes rapid health impact assessment for mukuru informal settlementThe UC Berkeley team completed a rapid health impact assessment for the Mukuru informal settlement in January 2019. This Rapid Health Impact Assessment (RHIA) aims to support the SPA planning process by assessing the health impacts of existing conditions and potential planning interventions.
In 2017, the Mukuru informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, was declared a Special Planning Area (SPA) due to its unique environmental, health and development challenges. The SPA designation prevents development for a two-year period, requiring that the Nairobi City County government develop and adopt an integrated improvement plan for the area by August 2019. Download the report here. |
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EXAMINING CALIFORNIA LAND USE ENTITLEMENTSCalifornia’s housing affordability crisis has rightly received a great deal of attention by state lawmakers, the press, academics, and ordinary Californians. Important questions raised in this discussion are: What laws or regulations might impede housing construction in high-cost areas? What solutions might help reduce those barriers with a minimum impact on other important values, such as environmental protection, public participation, and equitable treatment of low-income communities of color? More specifically, does state environmental law (the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA), or local land-use regulations, constrain housing development? To answer these questions, this phased research project joins legal research with qualitative research methods to examine land-use entitlement processes in selected high cost cities over a four-year period (2014-2017). Read more about this project here.
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DECEMBER 2018
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UC BERKELEY HEALTH STUDY DOCUMENTS IMPACTS TO BAY AREA FROM POSSIBLE HOSPITAL CLOSUREThe IURD recently completed a Rapid Health Impact Assessment (RHIA) of the likely population health impacts of the closing of Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, California. IURD researchers found that the closure may have significant impacts on the well-being of the region, particularly in the areas of birthing, emergency department access and disaster response. The closure may also adversely impact Cal students’ access to a full service hospital. According to lead author and IURD Director, Professor Jason Corburn, “our research found that the closure of Alta Bates hospital could adversely impact the health of all populations in the East Bay, but particularly those in Richmond and Contra Costa County, and those already vulnerable, such as the elderly, homeless and uninsured populations. A comprehensive plan is needed to ensure all populations and places have access to quality and affordable health services.” Read the full report below and an article in the Berkeleyside news about the report’s findings here
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NOVEMBER 2018
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WASHINGTON POST: IN SACRAMENTO, TRYING TO STOP A KILLING BEFORE IT HAPPENS An eye-opening article on the work of Advance Peace in Sacramento. To read the article, please click here.
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