ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea that health and wellbeing can be impacted by something as simple as where employers live and how involved they are in their community. Community-level initiatives focusing on systems and environmental changes are being deployed across the country to make the healthiest choices the easiest choices. The association between health, engagement, and community is also apparent in the conceptualization of high-level wellness offered by Halbert Dunn, MD, PhD, in the 1960s. Changes that combine a salutogenic focus with community involvement and co-production models can be initiated by physicians, mayors, urban planners, and many others in communities across the country and throughout the world. The shared vision and needs presented in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals provide a springboard for thinking about community-level change opportunities. Placemakers approach community change by facilitating activities that involve individuals in the community and that encourage open conversations about the use of public spaces.
