FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
Oct. 15, 2026  
Contact: Jack Cardinal, jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org   

 
Community Catalyst Announces Initiative to Create Radical, New Approach to Building Power in Communities  
 

Program will create and test a co-created, innovative model on the ground to build lasting, systemic change in communities   

BOSTON, MA — Community Catalyst, the nation’s leading health advocacy organization, today announced a new pilot for a transformational approach to building power in communities that spreads across neighborhood and state lines and lasts beyond elections and administrative challenges. The work builds on Community Catalyst’s 25-year history of forging innovative paths for health advocacy in America from the ground up.  

“This investment lets us build something that lasts: community power strong enough to hold through any election result, any corporate board decision, and any special interest agenda,” said Linda Goler Blount, President & CEO of Community Catalyst. “We’re going to answer the question the advocacy movement has wrestled with for generations. How do we build communities powerful enough that progress toward healthier people and communities can’t be undone?” 
 

The project, piloting in six communities, will address three interlocking challenges identified by Community Catalyst: a healthcare system that disproportionately harms Black Americans and communities of color; a national health justice field that lacks an integrated, replicable model to convert community power into lasting change; and health equity gains that are often vulnerable to organized backlash, rollbacks when institutional power changes hands, and resistance from entrenched and powerful healthcare entities. 

This initiative builds on a longstanding body of work by Community Catalyst and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to partner with state and local organizations across the country to build their infrastructure and leadership, and incubate innovative advocacy approaches to reshape the healthcare system. The organizations have teamed together previously on initiatives like: a multi-year, state-level implementation of the Affordable Care Act; targeted efforts to improve community and public health; inserting the consumer voice in healthcare decision-making rooms; innovative, far-reaching grassroots power building to affect policy change, and more. 

Support for this program is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. 

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About Community Catalyst  
Community Catalyst is a leading nonprofit national health advocacy organization dedicated to advancing a movement for racial equity and health justice. We partner with local, state and national advocates to leverage and build power towards a health system that is affordable, accessible and accountable to all people. Health systems will not be accountable to people without a fully engaged and organized community voice. That’s why we work every day to ensure people’s interests are represented wherever important decisions about health and healthcare are made: in communities, state houses and on Capitol Hill. For more information, visit www.communitycatalyst.org.