About us

The places that we grow up, live, and work impact how healthy we are. Urban areas, like inner-city London, have some of the most extreme health outcomes. Alongside their vibrancy and diversity sit stark health inequalities. At Impact on Urban Health, we want to change this.

We believe that we can remove obstacles to good health, by making urban areas healthier places for everyone to live.

Programmes of work

We address these health inequalities by focusing on a few complex health issues that disproportionately impact people living in cities – children’s health and food, multiple long-term conditions, the health effects of air pollution, and children’s mental health.

Our programmes are long-term and formed of partnerships at local, borough, national and international scales. Using our funding and expertise, we back home-grown initiatives, evidence-based approaches from around the world, and exciting, brand-new ideas.

As a funder, we concentrate our efforts where evidence shows we will have the greatest impact and then layer up multiple initiatives that approach the issue from different angles.

Taking a place-based approach

The London Boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark are our home. They are some of the most diverse areas in the world. It is here that we invest, test, and build our understanding of how cities can be shaped to support better health.

To us, a place-based approach means developing an understanding of how the local environment – such as the social context and economic factors – affects people’s health. We then share our insight, evidence and practical learning of what works in our inner-city place with others, to improve health in cities around the world.

Addressing health equity in all our work

We are a part of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, a charitable foundation. Within the Foundation, there is a family of organisations with the shared mission of health equity, including impact investing for health and supporting exceptional healthcare in the NHS. And we are working to embed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into everything we do.