For several years the hospital system has been planning an initiative and nonprofit organization known as Indy Health District. It focuses on five neighborhoods with a total of about 9,000 residents who, due to a number of socioeconomic factors, have a much lower life expectancy than folks who live in other parts of the Indy metropolitan area. The district’s leaders want to find solutions for most, if not all, of the issues weighing on these neighbors, including housing, transportation, land use, safety and food deserts.

It’s an incredibly ambitious undertaking that’s a bit difficult to wrap your brain around. It also prompts a healthy amount of skepticism. So we’ve invited Jamal Smith to lay out the plans for us. He’s executive director of Indy Health District and executive director of government affairs and strategic partnerships for IU Health. And he grew up with some of the impediments to success and good health that the residents of the district face.