Resource Library

In Cleveland, Ohio, our work with government officials and residents offers a model for putting wellbeing at the center of how we design our cities.

Senchel Matthews, FFI's associate director of built environment, writes about how the planning community can repair harms of the past to create a more just future in an article for Planning Magazine.

In an article for Medium, FFI Founder and CEO Katya Fels Smyth shares a new name for an enduring phenomenon: wellbeing stripping. Because it's not just financial assets that are often drained from communities that can least afford it, as part of major development or public good projects.

Infrastructure investments aren’t neutral. Imagine a future where people’s wellbeing is the starting place for how decisions are made about what, where, when and even whether we build. Our new tool is a step towards that future.

We participated in an important conversation that explored how investing in the built environment can be used as a lever for decriminalizing mental illness, increasing public safety, enhancing civic participation, addressing inequities and improving public health

Patrick McNeal of the North Flint Neighborhood Action Council outlines the harms wrought by infrastructure projects on communities of color – and how we can begin to heal by building wellbeing into our environments moving forward.

How effectively is your organization centering community? Use this tool with the Community Bill of Rights to guide conversations around what is or isn't being done to center community in your organization.

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.

The 2022 national infrastructure bill presents a historic opportunity to provide universal access to wellbeing through the built environment. Through a wellbeing lens, we can heal past harms and guide new, equitable infrastructure investments.

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.

For change to be sustained, transforming our systems must center community and what matters to people. Three leaders driving change in their communities discuss what it means to center community in ways that recognize, respect and authentically engage people.