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Written by Verinda Sood, Program Associate, Rippel Foundation
If you look closely at the City of Cincinnati’s official seal, you will see the Latin phrase, “Juncta Juvant,” meaning “strength in unity.” It’s a motto that is reflected in Interact for Health’s work to bridge connections across the region, advance health justice, and create conditions for everyone to thrive.
At The Rippel Foundation, we believe that communities thrive when they have vital conditions for health and well-being. The vital conditions are the properties of places and institutions that we all need all the time to reach our full potential. They include physical necessities like food, water, and humane housing, but also include things that are harder to quantify, like a sense of belonging and agency or civic muscle. Investments in each of these conditions are necessary to create an equitable, thriving future for ourselves and for generations to come.
At Hopeful Empowered Youth (HEY!), Greater Cincinnati youth have come together with hundreds of community leaders, health care providers, educators, policy makers, and parents, to create a comprehensive ten-year plan to strengthen mental health and well-being in schools, in communities and with caregivers, and in treatment settings. Each goal is grounded in the vital conditions, tailored to the needs of local youth. HEY! youth see their basic needs for health and safety as access for all youth to evidence-based, holistic, and culturally responsive care, and safe, free community spaces to be with other youth. Lifelong learning is building the capacity of parents, caregivers, and other adults to support their well-being and resilience, and belonging and civic muscle underlies youth connecting to leaders and policy makers to advocate for change.
While HEY! is at the beginning of their ten-year journey, The Heights Movement has been building belonging and civic muscle in the community of Lincoln Heights. In 2020, they successfully advocated to end gunfire noise pollution from a nearby Cincinnati Police Department gun range, a constant presence since 1947. Residents united over basic needs for health and safety, concerned about the trauma and physical effects from the decibel level of the gunfire. Their strength in unity led to the Hamilton County Commission agreeing to move the gun range by 2026, encouraging The Heights Movement to build on its momentum for change. A community garden brought a thriving natural world, leading to meaningful work and wealth when the garden evolved into an urban farm, commercial composting facility, and innovation hub, offering Hamilton County workforce development programs to train the next generation of agricultural workers. It’s an example of how the vital conditions interconnect and mutually reinforce each other for a thriving community.
Rippel sees The Heights Movement, HEY!, and the Greater Cincinnati community as part of a growing movement to thrive together. All across the country, this movement is being driven by changemakers—like those in Greater Cincinnati—who are committed to shifting systems toward equity and thriving through the vital conditions. They are united by a shared vision: a world where all people can thrive together—with no exceptions—where everyone has the vital conditions for health and well-being that they and future generations need to prosper and reach their full potential.
Learn more about the vital conditions for health and well-being:
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