Why Opportunity & Health?
Across America, our research and conversations point to one unifying truth: when opportunity expands, health improves — and when it contracts, health suffers.
The Problem
Stuck, Sick, and Looking for a Ladder Up
Americans are increasingly feeling “stuck” — in their jobs, their communities, their relationships, and their health. This is fundamentally an issue of social and economic opportunity. When people have access to well-paying jobs and pathways to promotion, live in vibrant communities, and have meaningful social connections, they have the tools they need to invest in their health and stay healthy. But when opportunity stalls, so do these building blocks of health and well-being. The result is a nation where too many people struggle to get ahead, lose hope, and get sicker — and die earlier — in the process.
Being stuck without opportunity doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it is shaped by changes in the economy, society, and our policies, all of which determine who has a chance to move up and who gets left behind. Understanding how those forces affect our health — and intervening on them — is essential to creating a future where opportunity and health reinforce each other, rather than erode together.
The American Dream vs. Reality
The American Dream is that idea that anyone — regardless of their background—could work hard, get ahead, and build a better life. But today, that promise feels out of reach for many people. Good jobs are harder to find, wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living, people are more isolated from each other, and deep-rooted inequalities mean that some communities never had a fair shot to begin with. As the distance between the ideal and our reality grows, it has taken a toll not just on people’s opportunities to advance in life, but also on their health.
Our work focuses on this disconnect — and what we can do about it. We study how economic opportunity, or lack of it, shapes people’s health, and how poor health can, in turn, limit the ability to climb the economic ladder. By uncovering the policies and systems that either open doors or close them, we identify and test solutions to restore the promise of the American Dream and promote a healthier, more prosperous future for all Americans.
Our Vision
Key Opportunities
Identify interventions to boost health among low-income Americans by increasing economic opportunities and reduce the negative impacts of job loss.
Design and test new interventions to improve social and economic opportunities in historically neglected communities.
Understand how and why social policies that shape social and economic opportunities affect health and well-being.
Essential Resources
Unstuck: Policies and Programs to Reverse the Life Expectancy Decline
Dropbox
September 12, 2024
Economic Opportunity, Health Behaviors, and Mortality in the United States
American Public Health Association
February 17, 2016
Economic Influences on Population Health in the United States: Toward Policymaking Driven by Data and Evidence
PLOS Medicine
September 2, 2020
Join Us in Our Work
Join us in advancing research that expand social and economic opportunity, strengthen hope, and improve health for all.