The new infrastructure package could be one of the nation’s most consequential investments in equitable wellbeing — but only if we make it so.
In a new Viewpoint essay for Planning magazine, FFI’s CEO Katya Fels Smyth and Brookings Senior Fellow Xavier de Souza Briggs make the case: we must reckon with how past investments have been used to institutionalize and deepen inequities and make concerted decisions to steer funding into the creation of a built environment that provides universal access to wellbeing.
Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Xavier de Souza Briggs and Full Frame Initiative CEO Katya Fels Smyth outline a framework grounded in the Wellbeing Blueprint to guide new investments in the built environment.
Communities, organizations and individuals across the country are already advancing structural change so everyone has a fair shot. The Wellbeing in Action map captures innovations and examples by location, issue area and Wellbeing Blueprint principles.
We participated in an important conversation about how incorporating wellbeing and resilience into infrastructure investments. We discussed ways to promote structural and social investments alongside changes to the built environment, programming and operations.