Celebrating 10 Years of Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance: How CBAs Can Improve Public Health  

Overview

This resource explores the potential of private sector community benefit agreements (CBAs) as a tool for advancing public health and health equity. CBAs are binding agreements between private developers and community coalitions that secure meaningful benefits — such as local hiring, affordable housing, and environmental protections — for those living in a project’s impact area. Though CBAs have largely been discussed outside the public health context, this resource examines how this community-led movement maps onto the social determinants of health and its promise as a mechanism for building community power.