NLC’s Cities of Opportunity initiative is running the Community Health and Wellbeing Accelerator beginning August 2025. Six city teams from across the country will participate in this twelve-month technical assistance program to identify and address root causes of health disparities at the local level, with a focus on the role of economic opportunity, housing, city planning and design, and health and human services.
What is the Community Health and Wellbeing Accelerator?
The city teams in this cohort receive technical assistance from NLC to build their capacity, leverage their community assets, and drive transformative policy and systems changes to promote health and wellbeing for all. This support includes expert coaching, process-change tools, and a curated peer learning environment – yielding proven impacts on residents’ health and wellbeing.
Executive Leadership Track
The Community Health and Wellbeing Accelerator also features an executive leadership track, which invites Mayors, City Managers, and other executive-level leadership from participating cities to engage in Accelerator programming alongside their city staff. This feature promotes alignment throughout city departments and ensures that wellbeing for all is a priority at every level of decision-making.
The following cities make up the 2025-2026 Community Health and Wellbeing Accelerator:
- City of Perris, CA
- City of Lawrence, IN
- City of Commerce City, CO
- City of Miramar, FL
- City of Providence, RI
- City of Las Vegas, NV
The Cities of Opportunity Initiative
Municipal leaders know that achieving health equity doesn’t happen overnight – that removing inequities so all city residents have the opportunity for health and well-being requires considerable effort and focus, collaboration, dedication and the willingness to confront systems and policy barriers.
But it can be done. And the results are transformational.
Grounded in a Theory of Change and strategies that center equity, authentic community engagement and sustainability, CoO helps bring communities together through a variety of entry points to find common ground and drive transformational change toward health, well-being and equity.
Cities of Opportunity Theory of Change
Cities of Opportunity
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