Podcast: Extra – Extended Interview: Dr. Carley Riley and the Neighborhoods as Systems Toolkit

So let's talk about broken systems in neighborhoods in Cincinnati and Dayton.

You've spent more than a decade researching how to fix these broken systems.

What are the characteristics of them and what are the challenged systems that you're seeing in our area?

One of the important things that we found over the last 10 years in working deeply within neighborhoods with community members and organizations is that neighborhoods behave as systems.

Housing, safety, food, business all interact together.

And each neighborhood is comprised of different components working differently and producing different outcomes for the people that live within those neighborhoods.

And so, in fact, we say systems aren't broken.

We say they're perfectly designed to get the outcomes that they're getting.

And so in neighborhoods where residents aren't experiencing the health and well-being outcomes that they would like to be experiencing, then what they need to do is address the system, not fix the symptoms.

One of the things that we find here across Cincinnati is that there are neighborhoods that have people living within them that are experiencing wonderful outcomes, wonderful health outcomes, wonderful well-being.

And then there's other neighborhoods in which people are disproportionately experiencing adverse health outcomes as well as lower well-being.

And we can understand that neighborhoods producing different outcomes means that we need to improve the system that is working within the neighborhoods that are not getting the outcomes that we want to see in order for the people living within them to experience better lives.

Can

you tell us a little bit of what are the most challenged systems that you're seeing in these neighborhoods?

So there's been a really wonderful foundation of study looking at what are the different conditions that people need in order to really achieve their best possible lives, to really thrive.

And one of the places I would look to is the vital conditions for thriving.

And there are seven of them with belonging and civic muscle at the center.

And so in neighborhoods or in communities where people really have a strong sense of belonging and also have the ability to really come together and to use their voice and to improve their own neighborhood of their own actions, those neighborhoods tend to have better outcomes, more people thriving.

We also see that housing, as well as food and basic needs for health and safety, along with transportation and lifelong learning, ability to have meaningful work and wealth, those are all really essential conditions as well.

If the people within a neighborhood, though, have that sense of belonging and ability to really shape and take action to improve their own conditions, then those neighborhoods tend to be seeing better housing, better food, better other vital conditions as well.

So residents are looking for solutions to help improve their neighborhoods.

You've created a toolkit, got a lot of tools in there.

What's been most effective? So the guide that emerged

out of the last 10 years of work really provides a pathway, a simple pathway for residents and other community members to work together in order to improve outcomes within their own neighborhoods.

It's a simple, simple pathway.

So let's talk about broken systems in neighborhoods in Cincinnati and Dayton.

You've spent more than a decade researching how to fix these broken systems.

What are the characteristics of them and what are the challenged systems that you're seeing in our area?

One of the important things that we found over the last 10 years in working deeply within neighborhoods with community members and organizations is that neighborhoods behave as systems.

Housing, safety, food, business all interact together.

And each neighborhood is comprised of different components working differently and producing different outcomes for the people that live within those neighborhoods.

And so, in fact, we say systems aren't broken.

We say they're perfectly designed to get the outcomes that they're getting.

And so in neighborhoods where residents aren't experiencing the health and well-being outcomes that they would like to be experiencing, then what they need to do is address the system, not fix the symptoms.

One of the things that we find here across Cincinnati is that there are neighborhoods that have people living within them that are experiencing wonderful outcomes, wonderful health outcomes, wonderful well-being.

And then there's other neighborhoods in which people are disproportionately experiencing adverse health outcomes as well as lower well-being.

And we can understand that neighborhoods producing different outcomes means that we need to improve the system that is working within the neighborhoods that are not getting the outcomes that we want to see in order for the people living within them to experience better lives.

Can

you tell us a little bit of what are the most challenged systems that you're seeing in these neighborhoods?

So there's been a really wonderful foundation of study looking at what are the different conditions that people need in order to really achieve their best possible lives, to really thrive.

And one of the places I would look to is the vital conditions for thriving.

And there are seven of them with belonging and civic muscle at the center.

And so in neighborhoods or in communities where people really have a strong sense of belonging and also have the ability to really come together and to use their voice and to improve their own neighborhood of their own actions, those neighborhoods tend to have better outcomes, more people thriving.

We also see that housing, as well as food and basic needs for health and safety, along with transportation and lifelong learning, ability to have meaningful work and wealth, those are all really essential conditions as well.

If the people within a neighborhood, though, have that sense of belonging and ability to really shape and take action to improve their own conditions, then those neighborhoods tend to be seeing better housing, better food, better other vital conditions as well.

So residents are looking for solutions to help improve their neighborhoods.

You've created a toolkit, got a lot of tools in there.

What's been most effective? So the guide that emerged

out of the last 10 years of work really provides a pathway, a simple pathway for residents and other community members to work together in order to improve outcomes within their own neighborhoods.

It's a simple, simple pathway.