NEW ORLEANS – Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black, Catholic university in the United States, has launched the BRIDGE (Bridging Resources for Improving Determinants and Green Environment Equality) database, a new public health tool aimed at addressing social determinants of health and environmental factors affecting communities in Louisiana.
The BRIDGE database offers local and statewide data on key social determinants of health, including housing, neighborhood and built environment, and transportation, as defined by the Healthy People 2030 framework.
“The specific social determinants of health our database observes are Housing, Neighborhood and Built Environment, and Transportation, as determined by the Healthy People 2030 Social Determinants of Health domains,” said Dr. Billie Castle, assistant professor in Xavier’s Department of Public Health Sciences.
The BRIDGE database also incorporates environmental factors relevant to public health in southeastern Louisiana, enabling the development of targeted strategies to mitigate environmental change and promote equitable healthcare for vulnerable populations. The database features an interactive dashboard that allows users to explore, analyze, and interact with data in real time.
“The database allows us to better assess and connect the impact of climate events on the health of Gulf South residents. The goal is to better understand how climate events impact social determinants of health – like housing, the environment and transportation – and the decisions Louisianans make to prepare,” Castle said.
“Green environmental equity means making sure communities that have historically been impacted the most by environmental hazards receive the resources necessary to protect them during climate events,” Castle added. “This requires different sectors, including the community, decision makers, public health officials, researchers, and many more need to come together to work to improve the environment we live in.”
The BRIDGE project is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, awarded in 2023. The funding aims to support academic-community partnerships that use community-based participatory research to demonstrate how data on climate-specific, environmental, and social determinants can better inform health agendas and policy decisions, particularly in at-risk communities disproportionately affected by climate change.
Through partnerships with organizations such as the Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development in the Lower Ninth Ward, Zion Traveler’s Cooperative Center, and the Phoenix Community in Plaquemines Parish, Xavier is collaborating with communities along the Mississippi River in the New Orleans metropolitan area. These partnerships aim to understand current health conditions, identify gaps in healthcare access, and develop strategies to address climate and environmental change. Xavier’s team plans to advance climate literacy, social determinants of health education, and access to health information through ongoing community discussions and working groups.
“The database will be helpful to a broad array of people who are working on behalf of the public good, especially people from academic institutions, researchers, community organizations, community members, public health professionals, and non-profit organizations,” said Castle. “The information from the database can be used for policy planning, grant writing, community tracking, and story-telling over time. It is important to track the impact climate events have on our communities and the changes – good or bad – to our environment.”
Currently, the BRIDGE database is an in-house project, with Xavier partnering with researchers within its community to add primary reports and data to the repository. The university anticipates sharing its first report by the end of Summer 2025.
“Our project was made possible through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Gulf Research Program’s funding program to advance health equity in at-risk communities of the U.S. Gulf Coast,” Castle noted.
Xavier plans to publish additional reports based on findings from community focus groups, documenting community perceptions of climate change and its impact on health and well-being.
“Our goal is to connect data to action. Utilizing findings from our database, we aim to provide policymakers with factual evidence of the impact climate events have on social determinants of health and health outcomes. In the long term, we will measure the impact of policy decisions on health outcomes, particularly those policies implemented in the Gulf South,” Castle said.
“We hope the database becomes a resource for the community, decision makers, and researchers in preparing for climate events. We envision the database becoming a repository for local data and an aid to our Xavier researchers to bridge the connection in understanding between climate events and health,” Castle added. “And in a look towards the future, we anticipate the database being utilized to proactively plan for climate events and prepare the community as the environment changes.”
Xavier is currently collecting secondary data through partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies. The BRIDGE database represents a significant step in Xavier University of Louisiana’s efforts to address health disparities and promote environmental justice in the Gulf South.
Xavier University states that its ultimate purpose is to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume roles of leadership and service in a global society.
The University’s major academic units are the College of Arts and Sciences (which awards baccalaureate degrees, master’s degrees in Education, Counseling, Public Health Sciences, and Speech-Language Pathology and a doctorate in Educational Leadership) and the College of Pharmacy (which awards the Doctor of Pharmacy, the Master of Health Sciences, and the Master of Science). The University also awards the Master of Theology through its Institute for Black Catholic Studies.
Xavier University of Louisiana is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
