Current Initiative
Franklin to the Fort Community Conversation from Fall, 2021
In fall 2021, Missoula Invest Health collaborative engaged with the Missoula City-County Health Dept. and the University of Montana to learn what social and community problems and solutions exist in our Invest Health neighborhoods and to see how our community residents have been affected by the pandemic.
Learn what we discovered from a special block of Franklin to Fort neighborhood residents.
Franklin to Fort Community Conversation Presentation and Franklin to Fort Community Conversation Summary.
Missoula Invest Health is honored to be a recipient of a portion of a Reinvestment Funds Collaborative Grants Award.
The partnerships formed through this initiative and opportunities are valuable investments into our community. Our local teams will focus on new learning and collaboration opportunities in partnership with other communities, focused on issues including aligning justice and equity, and operationalizing health equity policies. These learning opportunities will extend through the summer of 2022.
Reinvestment Fund’s Invest Health Awards $173,000 in Collaboration Grants to Promote Learning and Network Sustaining Activities Across Cities - Invest Health (Press Release, March 2022)
Past Initiatives
Invest Health ADU Virtual Convening: October 5, 7, 9, 13 and 15, 2020
Missoula has been collaborated with 3 other Invest Health Cities and Kol Peterson, an ADU expert based in Portland, Oregon, to offer a series of web meetings over the span of the first two weeks in October. Each web meeting presented a particular aspect of planning for and accommodating ADUs in a community. Themes from the web sessions range from health and equity, to financing, communications, enabling, and showcasing particular aspects of ADUs. Each day's theme with associated video and other resources are linked below:
Day 1: Equity and Access for Health: Why it Matters & How it Relates to ADUs - Part 1 & Part 2
Day 2: Financing and Access to Capital for Low/Fixed Income Homeowners
Day 3: Communications: Dealing with NIMBYism and ADU Development
Day 4: Enabling Environment: Policy & Regulations That Support ADU Development
Day 5: Showcasing ADUs Tour
Social Impact Investing in Affordable Housing Research
Roles for Impact Investors in Affordable Housing in Missoula County, Montana
The Missoula Invest Health Team commissioned a research project aimed at exploring social impact investment models for Missoula housing. The research was conducted and written by Rosalie Sheehy Cates, Senior Advisor, The Giving Practice. The Research Report identifies strategies that might leverage impact investment to increase and maintain affordable housing in Missoula. The report was finalized in October, 2020 and can be found here.
Missoula Invest Health Displacement Risk Ratio Analysis and Webinar Information
The Displacement Risk Ratio Analysis is a project supported by Missoula Invest Health. It is an analysis that was developed by the Reinvestment Fund that helps to identify areas where residents may face involuntary displacement by comparing changes in the ratio between housing sales price to median household income over time.
The analysis was presented by Alana Kim, Policy Analyst, Reinvestment Fund, and Dr. Michael Norton, Chief Policy Analyst, Reinvestment Fund at a webinar on September 17, 2020. The video recording of the webinar can be found here. The Reinvestment Fund presentation can be found here. The Missoula Invest Health portion of the presentation can be found here.
About Invest Health Missoula
The city of Missoula is proud to have been chosen to participate in the national Invest Health project sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund.
"Missoula Invest Health Awarded $75,000 Technical-Support Grant to Advance Health Equity; Housing Solutions"
Missoula is one of 10 U.S. cities awarded a $75,000 grant and 12 months of technical support from Reinvestment Fund to advance health equity in the city. This reward is a reflection of the shared vision and progress made to develop policies, strategies, and systems with community voice that ensures that all Missoula residents have equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy lives. The grant will further two principal goals in Missoula: developing financeable housing projects that promote health equity; and advancing and aligning community investment systems to obtain funding for those projects.
How does a community align development with health?
Missoula Growth Policy + Missoula Invest Health Assessment = Invest Health
Health Equity
- Focus on low-income neighborhoods and health equity
- Accelerate improvements in neighborhoods facing the biggest barriers to better health
Resident-Driven
- Work with residents as leaders and experts in what works for health in their neighborhoods
Partnership as Critical to Success
- Bring together diverse leaders
- Transform the way local leaders work together
- Create solution-driven partnerships
Effective Community Systems and Assets
- Increase and leverage private and public investments
This is the third grant in a series provided through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund.
In 2016, Missoula was one of 50 mid-size cities selected from across the nation for an opportunity to work with national leaders and peer communities at the forefront of addressing health equity. Invest Health brings together partners from health and community development to create innovative ways to support health and well-being in Missoula neighborhoods.
