Public health: then and now. The first neighborhood health center movement--its rise and fall.

The Neighborhood as a Unit of Change for Health: Early Findings from the East Harlem Neighborhood Health Action Center

“…The Action Centers build on the legacy of NYC's District Health Center movement, which began in 1921 with a pilot project in East Harlem to co-locate health services, welfare agencies and community-based organizations to coordinate health and social services for the neighborhood [6]. Based on this project's success, District Health Centers were replicated in other NYC neighborhoods until World War II and other events led to their defunding as resources went elsewhere.…”

“…The Action Centers are part of a neighborhood strategy that is informed by reimagining the neighborhood health center movement that started in East Harlem in 1921, and more contemporarily by the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative framework, which illustrates the connections between health and social inequalities [6,7]. The framework encourages the public health community to shift from its traditionally "downstream" focus on individual behaviors to focus on the "upstream" factors of social and institutional inequities and living conditions [7].…”

Revitalizing Communities Together

“…Health centers focus on reducing local health disparities for low-income communities and communities of color through culturally competent primary care practices. 81,82 Full-service community schools offer a local example of interventions driven by the shared values and outcomes of the three fields. Community schools are public schools that are open to students, their families, and the community all day and even when school is not in session.…”

The Significance of the Milbank Memorial Fund for Policy: An Assessment at Its Centennial

“…Moreover, contemporary publications and later accounts by professional historians did not describe how Kingsbury, Biggs, the members of the Technical Board, and executives of the AICP and SCAA managed the politics of the demonstrations (Rosen 1971; Toon 1999). The sensitivity of their managers to the nuances of politics distinguished these demonstrations from similar but smaller projects around the country described by historian George Rosen as the “first neighborhood health center movement” (Rosen 1971). The Fund and its partners were careful to make their expectations explicit in negotiations with local authorities.…”