ABOUT

What is PHEAL?

PHEAL stands for Planning for Health Equity Advocacy and Leadership. This initiative, conceived at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in the development of health equity guiding principles. Professionals and practitioners entrusted with the planning, design, construction and maintenance of the built environment use the PHEAL principles as a thinking tool to help institutionalize and operationalize health equity into their work.

Our History

PHEAL was created as a response to two crises: The COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed patterns of health inequities in communities already overburdened with health inequities, and the explosion of long-simmering racial tensions that occurred with the death of George Floyd. In May 2020, a group of 77 practitioners gathered to develop the PHEAL Principles as a call to action to respond to the health risks and racial injustice we see in our communities. This requires a fundamental shift in the power dynamics of community development and health.

The PHEAL Principles serve as a tool for professionals and technical experts working in public, private, or non-profit organizations in built environment fields, including city planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering, transportation, community development, real estate, parks and recreation, sustainability and resilience, green building, public health, and any others interested in the impact of the built environment on health outcomes.

View Principles