What is the West Philadelphia Promise Zone?

In 2014, the federal government designated a group of neighborhoods in West Philadelphia as a Promise Zone based on indicators of poverty, unemployment, housing, education, and violence – all factors that influence health – as well as capacity for positive change for its residents. The map below shows the Promise Zone shaded in orange. The Promise Zone is roughly two square miles, includes parts of ten neighborhoods and nine census tracts, and includes 35,315 residents.

What is a community health profile?

A health profile uses existing data to describe the health of a neighborhood or community. The data used are often called "indicators" of neighborhood health status. The purpose of this health profile is to describe the health and related factors (such as housing, food, etc.) of residents of the Promise Zone, to help residents and health advocates take advantage of resources to plan new programs or services to improve community health. It can also be useful over time to see whether improvement efforts have created positive change. Where possible, we compared what we learned about health in the Promise Zone with all of Philadelphia, or how the Promise Zone compares to the neighborhoods with the highest and lowest of each indicator.

What do we know about health in the Promise Zone?

This community health profile contains information about a variety of health and quality of life indicators – data on how residents rate their own health, health behaviors, access to health care, and neighborhood characteristics that influence health. The data in this profile generally shows that the Promise Zone neighborhoods perform worse in most health indicators than Philadelphia as a whole and closer to the neighborhoods at the bottom of the range than those at the top. This shows that significant public health challenges and health disparities exist in the Promise Zone.

When residents from the Promise Zone were asked to rate their own health, more people reported that they have fair or poor health and fewer people reported that their health is excellent, very good, or good, compared to Philadelphia as a whole. Although it is a simple question, self-rated health is both an important measure of overall physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Neighborhood Data

Where people live affects their physical and mental health and quality of life. A neighborhood can be detrimental to health, with high levels of pollution or violence, or lacking acceptable places to be active. A neighborhood can also motivate good health, with healthy homes, access to fresh-healthy food, and high levels of community cohesion and civic engagement.

Presence of Tobacco Retailers

 

Access to tobacco products increases smoking behaviors. There are more tobacco retailers in the Promise Zone than Philadelphia as a whole, which may play a role in the larger number of smokers in the Promise Zone.

Crime Rate per 10,000 Residents

Crime affects the safety and health of individuals and also has a community-level impact. Property crimes such as theft and vandalism negatively impact residents’ quality of life. Exposure to violent and nonviolent crime can increase individual stress and even causes whole communities to experience stress and trauma. The rates of property crime and violent crime in the Promise Zone are both slightly higher than that of Philadelphia as a whole. Although the Promise Zone has somewhat higher violent crime rates than Philadelphia as a whole, the difference is relatively small, especially when compared to the neighborhood with the most alarming crime statistics.

Housing Distress

Vacant Land and Buildings

Types of Calls to 311 (%)

Strengths and Limitations of These Data

Currently, there is no health data that has been collected or can be examined at the neighborhood level in West Philadelphia. Thus for this profile, existing health and related data at the zip code level was used to create estimates for the Promise Zone boundaries. The data from the household health survey used samples from large areas, is done by phone, and combines 3 sets of data spanning 6 years to create good estimates. This means some programs (e.g. Medicaid expansion) may have changed during the time period, which can impact the data. Also, like any survey data, this may not be fully representative of all Promise Zone residents. However, this is the best health data that currently exists, and can still help us understand important information about resident health and identify additional health data needed to help community improvement efforts. The data used in this profile is good for monitoring change over time because it is routinely collected, and will likely continue to be in the future. If you have any questions about how we used these data or created Promise Zone estimates, please contact us using the information below.

Conclusions

• Health data is needed that is representative of Promise Zone resident experiences, both as a whole and within each of the ten Promise Zone neighborhoods. These data will help pinpoint areas for needed services and programs, and capture neighborhood-level change over time. Research that is conducted in partnership with Promise Zone neighborhoods will be most effective at capturing data about community health. Qualitative data would be useful to understand residents' experiences with health and priorities for improvement. Quantitative data would allow for continued comparisons to the rest of the city and show changes over time.
• There are significant areas for improvement in self-rated overall health, access to health care, and important health behaviors (e.g. diet, smoking).
• Housing distress and vacant lots and buildings are significantly worse in the Promise Zone than the city as a whole. Improvements in these areas will improve health and quality of life for residents.
• Although violence and property crime are challenges in the Promise Zone, there are recognizable improvements when compared to other communities with high poverty rates, and the sources of these improvements should be supported.
• Solutions should focus on health equity - improving health while addressing the underlying social and economic inequities that cause poor health.

What health data went into creating this health profile?