Understanding the Link Between Health and Poverty
When we think about health, we often think about access to doctors, hospitals, or medication. But for many individuals and families across Utah, the biggest health barriers aren't medical at all. They’re rooted in everyday circumstances like stable housing, access to food, safe neighborhoods, and reliable transportation.
These non-medical factors are known as Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and they shape not only how long we live, but how well we live.
Community Action Agencies (CAAs) in Utah play a vital role in improving these conditions by offering holistic support that promotes long-term well-being, not just temporary relief. Let’s explore how SDOH and poverty are connected and how CAAs are uniquely positioned to address both.
What Are Social Determinants of Health?
According to Healthy People 2030, a national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Social Determinants of Health are the conditions in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, and age. These conditions fall into five key categories:
- Economic Stability: Employment, income, housing stability, and access to financial support.
- Education Access and Quality: Early childhood education, high school graduation, literacy, and vocational training.
- Health Care Access and Quality: Availability of preventive services, health insurance, and mental health care.
- Neighborhood and Built Environment: Safe housing, transportation, walkability, access to healthy food, and environmental safety.
- Social and Community Context: Community engagement, social support, and safe environments free from violence or discrimination.
When these conditions are poor, health outcomes suffer—regardless of whether someone has access to a doctor.
How Poverty Interacts With SDOH
Poverty doesn’t affect just one area of life, it affects all five categories of SDOH.
Families living in poverty may:
- Struggle to find stable, affordable housing
- Lack access to nutritious food or clean drinking water
- Face unreliable or no transportation, limiting job opportunities and healthcare access
- Experience interruptions in education or job training
- Live in communities with limited public services or safe spaces
These challenges are deeply connected. When someone can’t access stable housing, their health suffers. When a child can’t concentrate in school due to hunger, their educational outcomes decline. This creates a cycle where poor SDOH contribute to poor health—which in turn makes it harder to escape poverty.
How Community Action Agencies Help
Community Action Agencies in Utah are built to address these complex, interconnected challenges through a whole-person, whole-family approach. Their mission is not just to provide services, but to support individuals and families in achieving self-sufficiency.
Using flexible federal funding like the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), CAAs can adapt services to meet local needs across all areas of SDOH. This includes:
- Food Assistance: Connecting families with emergency food, nutrition programs, or community pantries
- Housing Stabilization: Helping individuals secure or maintain housing and avoid eviction
- Utility Support: Offering energy assistance programs like HEAT to keep homes safe and livable
- Job Training & Employment Support: Providing pathways to stable income through skill-building and career coaching
- Digital Access: Addressing barriers to education and employment with internet access and device programs
- Mental Health Referrals: Supporting emotional wellness through coordinated referrals and case management
- Early Childhood Education: Helping children and families thrive from the start through Head Start and related programs
CAAs also go beyond direct services by offering case management, individualized referrals, and coordinated care plans. Clients are seen as individuals with goals and potential, not just program participants. This approach centers on respect, dignity, and creating an environment where people are empowered to take the next step forward.
The Power of Local, Integrated Solutions
Community Action Agencies don’t work alone. They partner with government agencies, local health providers, schools, private businesses, and faith-based organizations to deliver coordinated services. These partnerships are essential because no single organization can address poverty alone.
Using tools like community needs assessments, Utah’s CAAs tailor their services to reflect the specific strengths and needs of each region. They also use these insights to reduce service duplication and lower barriers so individuals and families can get the support they need, faster and more effectively.
Even if CAAs do not offer clinical care, they play a vital role in stabilizing families’ environments, which lays the groundwork for better health outcomes in the long term.
Building a Healthier Utah, One Family at a Time
When we address the social determinants of health, we address poverty at its roots. CAAs are doing this every day by walking alongside people, offering services that go beyond temporary fixes and instead support lasting change.
If you want to support this work, consider donating, volunteering, or sharing information about your local Community Action Agency. Together, we can help more families in Utah thrive—physically, mentally, and economically.
