About Us
The solutions that work for some communities don’t work for all of them.
That’s why we exist.
Over the last five years, REACH has focused on creating healthier, more equitable communities where individuals live, learn, work, and play by making health equity a shared vision and value by supporting a community-driven approach to increasing capacity for better outcomes.
REACH is more than an initiative.
It’s a movement rooted in equity, collaboration, and lasting change. Take 90-seconds to learn how REACH is centering community to change systems and build a healthier New Jersey.
Closing the gap.
While research has been done for decades looking at social determinants of health, there is still a tremendous gap between what we know academically and what is happening in communities.
The goal of REACH is to close that gap.
Our Mission
REACH advances the University's commitment to empower communities through knowledge and discovery. REACH models how higher education partners with community-based organizations, community leaders, community residents, and policymakers to improve health outcomes through translational, community-based health equity research, education, service, and programming.
Numerous studies suggest that SDOH account for between 30-55% of health outcomes.
Sustainable, Inclusive, and Equitable
REACH focuses on creating more significant opportunities for community-based learning and research, fostering a culture that increasingly values the considerable expertise many community partners bring to the work. REACH's work has been guided by five Collaborative Learning Tables (CLT), one for each of our areas of focus:
Social Determinants of Health
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems.
Social determinants of health have an important influence on health inequities - the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between communities. In communities at all levels of income, health and illness follow a social gradient: the lower the socioeconomic position, the worse the health. (definition adapted from the World Health Organization)