From the Field
Communities are complicated. The forces that shape health, wealth, and opportunity rarely move in straight lines, and understanding them requires careful thinking, honest data, and a willingness to sit with complexity rather than smooth it over. From the Field is where we share that thinking, explainers on the topics central to our work, data and research we find worth understanding more deeply, and books that have shaped how we see the problems we work on. This is not a blog. It is a place for ideas we think are worth your time.
We are still building this out. Check back soon.
Features
The work we do sometimes raises more questions than answers. Our Features go beyond the brief, like why some people think declining teen birth rates are a bad thing, the economics of a grocery store that never came, and what it costs a rural community when its only hospital closes. They are written for readers who want more than a simple summary.
Backgrounders
Some of the most consequential topics in community health and economic development are also the least understood. We try our best to help. Our Backgrounders help explain how things connect, like why a child’s reading level at 4th grade matters, how lipstick sales signal recessions, and why your ZIP code is often as important as your doctor.
Field Guides
Good work requires good tools. Our Field Guides are practical, written resources developed from our experience working alongside health systems, communities, governments, and grant administrators across North America. Whether you are navigating a new process or building internal capacity, these guides are meant to be used.
In Practice
The best way to understand how we work is to see it. Our In Practice pieces draw from real engagements across North America, some named, some anonymized, all grounded in actual work. They cover what we did, how we did it, and what we’d do differently next time, because how you do the work shapes what the work can do.
Book Club
We read a whole lot, and we think you should too. Our Book Club is a running list of fiction and nonfiction that has shaped how we think about community, health, wealth, and the structures that affect all of them. These are not textbooks. They are the kinds of books you keep talking to your friends about because they changed something about how you see your world.
Some you’ve maybe already read, like Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (earned all the cred it got) or the poverty anthology Tales of Two Americas. Others we hope you do, like The Great Escape by the incredibly smart Angus Deaton, or Small is Beautiful, an often-forgotten argument for human-centered economics.