The Regional Equity Atlas is a major research and education project to promote widespread opportunity for a stronger, healthier, and more sustainable Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region.
Our region’s exceptional quality of life should be accessible to all who live here, but disparities in the distribution of resources and opportunities mean that not all communities benefit from the opportunities the region provides. The goal of the Equity Atlas is to create a better region for all by promoting changes in public policy, planning, and strategic investments to eliminate disparities.
Using maps, policy analysis, community based research, and other tools, the Equity Atlas project assesses how well different populations across the four-county Portland metro region can access key resources necessary for meeting their basic needs and advancing their health and well-being. By illuminating the region’s geography of opportunity, the Equity Atlas is a powerful tool for promoting greater regional equity. It can be used to inform a wide range of planning and policy decisions, such as where to locate new housing, transit, parks, services, infrastructure, and other amenities, and where to most effectively target public and private investments.
The Equity Atlas project has three main components, which you can access below:
- Web-based mapping tool: Create customized maps on key issues affecting the region.
- Maps and explanation of the findings: Find sample maps, preliminary analysis, user manuals, and additional data.
- Outreach and education initiative: Get involved in using the Atlas to create creating concrete changes in in regional policies and priorities. Start by signing up for a workshop or training, or contact us to arrange one for your organization or group.
Explore the rest of the Equity Atlas website to:
- Learn more about the Equity Atlas project
- Read the a summary of our key findings
- Get information about the issues we are mapping, including a list of the equity indicators as well as the issues that we wanted to include in the Equity Atlas but were unable to map
- View additional equity-related data that are not included in the mapping tool
- Download additional printable maps, including the posters from the Coalition for a Livable Future’s Regional Livability Summit in October 2012.
Our primary partners on the Equity Atlas Project are Metro – the Portland area’s regional government, Portland State University’s Institute for Metropolitan Studies, and Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation.
Major funding provided by the Bullitt Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Community Fund,
Meyer Memorial Trust, Northwest Health Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.