New Haven Becomes Innovator City in Aetna Foundation's Healthiest Cities & Counties Challenge

New Haven has been named as an Innovator City in the Healthiest Cities & Counties Challenge (the Challenge).

The Challenge is a $1.5 million prize competition in which small and mid-sized U.S. cities and counties as well as federally recognized tribes will compete over the course of several years to develop practical, evidence-based strategies to improve measurable health outcomes and promote health and wellness, equity and social interaction in their communities.

Through the Challenge, New Haven plans to reduce the disparate impact of asthma on low-income children’s lives by bringing together the health, education, youth services and housing sectors in a cross-sector, cross-generational collaboration to implement evidence-based practices. This integrated program will be called the New Haven Asthma Alliance.

To do so, the New Haven Health Department is partnering with New Haven Public Schools, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Trees, Community Services Administration, Livable Cities Initiative, Department of Transportation and the Free Public Library and its four neighborhood branches.

New Haven’s participation in the Challenge comes at a critical time when the city has the highest rate of asthma hospitalization in the state. Further, residents of the city’s low-income neighborhoods have substantially higher rates of asthma—23 percent compared to 14 percent in Connecticut and 13 percent nationwide. These neighborhoods also have high rates of related factors such as unemployment, food insecurity and daily smoking.

As an Innovator City, New Haven hopes to foster the coordination between the city’s entities and integrate the health, education and family support sectors to make families central in addressing asthma holistically.

To learn more about the Challenge, visit www.healthiestcities.org.