Our work at Ichor is driven by communities. Developing a nuanced understanding of underserved areas in a city and the key issues communities are facing is critical to our clients successfully forming authentic relationships and addressing concerns and inequities. Through this work, we ensure our clients’ time and investments make sense and effectively support the communities they engage with. As such, Ichor’s Research and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) teams work together to conduct in-depth analyses of target cities, highlighting communities of interest and disparities residents deal with.
For an industry such as construction, our research may look at environmental justice issues and analyze case studies of failed or successful infrastructure developments. In recent months, Memphis, Tennessee – a major logistics hub – has been at the center of national infrastructure conversations due to the discovery of a significant crack in the Hernando De Soto Bridge; this is not the first time Memphis has experienced a large-scale infrastructure failure. In March 2018, two pumps failed at a treatment plant in the city, resulting in sewage flooding General DeWitt Spain Airport and the city dumping untreated sewage water into the Mississippi River. This came only two years after the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued an order for the city to pay more than $500,000 in damages and penalties for sewage system failures that led to hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated waste to be funneled into McKellar Lake and the Loosahatchie River.
Many of the waste treatment facilities, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities in Memphis are in or around predominantly Black neighborhoods, heavily impacting the quality of life and health outcomes in these communities – demonstrating the intersectional nature of these issues. These examples of environmental racism resulted in Memphis being referred to for many years as the country’s asthma capital, fueled further by its built environment, with 36,000 homes in 2016 having structural deficiencies resulting in pests, water leaks, and mold. Low-income, Black households in the city are disproportionately impacted due to a history of segregation and redlining.
Yet, when community organizations band together, they may be able to halt further environmental racism. Such was the case in July 2021 when grassroots organization Memphis Community Against the Pipeline, supported by Protect Our Aquifer and the Tennessee Sierra Club chapter, successfully defeated the development of a crude oil pipeline in Memphis. The Byhalia Connection pipeline was planned to run below the historic Boxtown neighborhood in addition to several other Black neighborhoods on its 45-mile route. The pushback came from the same South Memphis community that was home to the Memphis Defense Depot Superfund site, which continues to contaminate groundwater in the area decades after being shut down and is anecdotally associated with causing a significant number of cancer cases in the community. The zip code immediately surrounding the site is more than 90 percent Black.
Often, the issue areas Ichor’s experts research and develop strategies for may not have as obvious a connection as the Memphis example above. For example, a technology company would likely be interested in understanding what challenges and inequities underserved communities in their target markets deal with, and then formulating strategies to alleviate these problems.
Consider the technology company’s target market is Cleveland, Ohio. Our research would uncover that lead poisoning, the opioid epidemic, and infant mortality are some of the biggest public health concerns. Cuyahoga County’s 2019 Community Health Assessment uncovered that 12.9 percent of children under age six in Cleveland had dangerous blood lead levels, compared to the national rate of 3.5 percent. Additionally, the unintentional opioid-related mortality rate in 2017 was 72.5 per 100,000, notably higher than the national rate of 14.5. Though opioid overdoses had been declining for several years, the epidemic was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people were isolated and unable to easily access support services and treatment centers, which reduced capacity and halted 12-step meetings.
The county health assessment also found that that the infant mortality rate in Cleveland is nearly double the U.S. overall, at 12 and 5.9 per 100,000 people, respectively. Some of the highest infant mortality rates in the city are in predominantly Black neighborhoods like Fairfax and Central – 20.5 and 19 per 1,000 births, respectively. As of 2018, the employment rate in Central was 64.2 percent and 40.7 percent of households had internet access, compared with the predominantly white neighborhood Kamm’s, which has an infant mortality rate of 7.9 per 1,000 births, employment rate of 92.8 percent, and internet access in 78.5 percent of households. Employed individuals are more likely to have access to health insurance, and internet connectivity enables residents to easily access the job market and health care services, such as scheduling doctor’s appointments and seeking medical advice. Another indicator of economic wellbeing and access to resources, 67 percent of households in Central receive food stamps, 41.7 percent in Fairfax, and 16.2 percent in Kamm’s – predominantly going to Black households in all three neighborhoods. Of all Cleveland residents, 58 percent live in a food desert, meaning they are more than half a mile from a supermarket or grocery store.
In addition to looking at baseline health care and public health data in Cleveland, we would assess social determinants of health such as economic stability, education, and neighborhood and built environment, among others. Ichor Advisors ‘on the ground’ provide additional support in highlighting key issues and determining which neighborhoods are particularly underserved or undergoing gentrification. With this work, the technology company could decide to expand the scope of its local efforts in telehealth or increase its investments in broadband, connecting communities to the resources they need.
By understanding a city’s nuances and the primary issues communities are dealing with, companies are in a better position to develop plans that address local concerns. With our hyper-local insights and advanced analytic research, Ichor is uniquely positioned to elevate enterprise through impactful community strategy.
Next month, we will take a deeper dive into the local sociopolitical landscape in Seattle, Washington, with a focus on income inequality.