Summary
This paper provides an overview of the development of THRIVE (Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments), and reviews its purposes and uses. It briefly introduces Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) frameworks that have been developed, highlights similarities and differences among and between the frameworks, and provides examples of how SDOH frameworks are influencing local, regional and national health and public health initiatives. The paper describes how THRIVE in particular, affirms that the social-cultural, physical/built, and economic/ educational environments at the community level - i.e. the community determinants of health - have a significant impact on health and safety outcomes and their inequitable or equitable distribution. By synthesizing and translating a large body of research into an accessible framework and tool with supporting materials, THRIVE helps communities to analyze the pathways by which structural drivers shape daily living conditions, and as a result, influence inequities in health and safety outcomes. Building on this analysis, THRIVE helps communities identify strategies to change policies and practices toward greater health equity.