The Community Data Health Initiative
The Community Data Health Initiative
The Community Data Health Initiative (CDHI) serves to expand cities' capacity to take on environmental challenges that directly affect people’s health—starting with air pollution and extreme heat. We partner with mayors and city staff to turn local data, community insights, and cross-sector partnerships into targeted solutions in neighborhoods facing the greatest environmental health risks.
CDHI launched in 2022 and is generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Kresge Foundation. We function as a collaboration between the Data-Smart City Solutions program at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the African American Mayors Association, and Meharry Medical College.
Spotlight Resources for Mayors & Chiefs of Staff
See our spotlight resources for mayors, capturing core strategies and proven best practices from three years of collaboration with cities nationwide. These guides provide a clear, evidence-informed starting point for mayoral leadership to protect communities from air pollution, extreme heat, and lead exposure with practical actions cities can take today.
Our Work With Cities
We work alongside city leaders who are ready to take meaningful action on environmental health. Whether you’re seeking deep, hands-on partnership, peer exchange with other leading cities, or practical tools you can use right away, CDHI offers multiple pathways for engagement.
Pilot Collaborations
We partner with a select group of cities on hands-on projects that build local capacity to tackle air pollution and extreme heat. Pilot cities receive:
- Expert advising and technical support
- A dedicated data fellow from Meharry Medical College
- Tools for community engagement
- Support with cross-department coordination
- Direct engagement with mayors and senior leaders
Our current pilot cities include Washington, D.C.; Detroit, MI; and Baltimore, MD.
National Learning Cohorts
Our peer learning cohorts convene cross-departmental teams from leading cities working to address air quality and extreme heat. These executive-style groups create a trusted forum for cities to collaborate on local strategies, strengthen data-informed decision-making, and advance practical solutions to environmental health challenges.
Through the cohorts, cities:
- Learn from and problem-solve with peer cities facing similar challenges
- Share lessons and refine strategies for targeting high-impact interventions
- Strengthen how they use data to set priorities, weigh tradeoffs, and engage communities
- Gain practical insights, funding awareness, and tested approaches that can be applied to local policies and programs
Interested in joining a cohort? Email kate_murphy@hks.harvard.edu.
Resources for All Cities
Even if you’re not in a pilot or cohort, you can still learn from our work. We regularly publish tools, templates, case studies, and lessons learned from cities across the country. Explore our resources below by topic to find what’s most useful for your team.
Resources and Lessons Learned
We’ve hosted workshops, expert sessions, and peer convenings to support cities in building heat resilience. Here’s what we’ve learned, in the areas of extreme heat and air pollution. For cities looking to take action, explore our Heat Action Hub.
Related Articles
Read our new articles and research related to CDHI's environmental and public health work.
