Learning from Communities
By Jasmine Hall Ratliff
Last month, I was in Atlanta for a meeting of the Windward Fund, where I serve as a board member. Spending time with partners there reminded me how powerful community can be when people are working toward shared goals. The Windward Fund supports collaborative initiatives that help communities advance environmental solutions, economic opportunity, and long-term resilience. Seeing that work up close left me energized about what’s possible back home in Missouri.
On my trip, I saw examples of what coordinated investment can make possible. One project helped deliver energy efficiency upgrades to more than 100 of Atlanta’s most energy-burdened homes while also training a new cohort of technicians certified in home energy performance, addressing housing costs, climate resilience, and workforce development at the same time. In another effort, faith communities are being equipped to serve as neighborhood resilience hubs, providing power, heat, and essential support during emergencies (in the photo above you can see the solar panels on the roof of the New Bethel AME Church in Lithonia, Georgia).
These efforts showed how partnership can translate big ideas into solutions that meet everyday needs and strengthen communities over time. It reinforced that the most effective investments rarely solve one problem — they strengthen multiple systems at once.
I came home thinking about how much opportunity we have to build that kind of connection and shared learning across Missouri. At Build Missouri Health, we’re working to help create the conditions for collaboration: supporting partners, strengthening infrastructure, and connecting ideas so promising solutions can grow and adapt across communities. That includes work at the intersection of climate resilience, healthy housing, and economic opportunity, where investments can lower energy costs, improve living conditions, and strengthen community stability all at once.
Experiences like this remind me that progress doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens when communities learn from one another and move forward together.
