http://www.civichalllabs.org/healthy-public-challenge/ HOW MIGHT WE LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY COHESION ACROSS DIVISIONS, CIVIC AGENCY, AND ACCESS TO PUBLIC ASSETS? PROBLEM At a time when ideological divisions deepen disengagement, classism and racism isolates communities, and disinvestment in safety nets destabilizes families, the health of our public is deeply threatened. These civic roots have a tremendous impact on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of our communities. To create a healthy public, we believe that technology can be used as a tool to ensure the public's vitality against the chronic maladies of isolation, disempowerment, and instability. Civic Hall Labs launches the Healthy Public Challenge as a call for solutions that build a healthy society in these three target categories: 1. CIVIC COHESION - increase communal interactions, community discourse, and engagement within and across groups; 2. CIVIC AGENCY - support underrepresented groups to participate in governing our public at the local, state, and/or national levels, improve decision-making through data equity, open sourced tools, or access to information; 3. PUBLIC ASSETS - protect and increase access to public goods and social safety nets. Learn more and see examples of solutions within these categories here<http://www.civichalllabs.org/healthy-public-challenge-criteria#systems-approach>. BACKGROUND With the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation<http://www.rwjf.org/>, Civic Hall Labs has launched the Healthy Public Project to catalyze innovation in addressing the civic roots of health. Civic Hall Labs<http://www.civichalllabs.org/> exists to collaboratively design and build technology for the public good. As one of our themed labs, the Health Lab<http://www.civichalllabs.org/health-lab/> uses an interdisciplinary approach to shift from the mainstream notion of health as disease management to addressing the civic roots of health disparities. We want to flip the question from what makes a community unhealthy to asking: What makes a healthy public? -- Melody Clark Communications Manager Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) University of Washington Information School melclark@uw.edu<mailto:melclark@uw.edu> | 206.303.7910 Twitter: @taschagroup<https://twitter.com/taschagroup> | @melodyrclark<https://twitter.com/#!/melodyrclark> tascha.uw.edu<http://tascha.uw.edu/>