Cut the life expectancy gap in half. Within a decade.
Where you live in America can still shape how long you live by 20 years or more. On July 23, 2026, CHC: Creating Healthier Communities and leaders from across the country committed to changing that. Together, we will cut the life expectancy gap between the healthiest and least healthy communities in half within ten years.
The gap is measured in decades
The numbers behind the moonshot come from Built to Thrive, CHC's national report on community health and longevity.
These gaps are the product of conditions communities live with every day: barriers to care, housing instability, limited access to healthy food, and neighborhoods built without health in mind. Conditions built in the past can be rebuilt with better decisions.
Built to Thrive
Built to Thrive is CHC's national report on the health of America's communities: what the gap is costing today, what closing it is worth, and the blueprint for getting there over the next decade.
It draws on original research from Gravity Research and insight from more than twenty leaders across business, healthcare, government, and philanthropy, the same evidence base behind the moonshot itself.
REPLACE this box with the calculator embed on release.
One day. Eighteen sessions. One moonshot.
At the CHC National Forum in Washington, D.C., leaders from health systems, business, government, philanthropy, and community organizations spent one day moving from evidence to action: eighteen sessions on what it will take to close the gap, and a wall of written commitments to begin. Every attendee named one action for the next 30 days and one partner to call that week.
"Life expectancy in downtown Manhattan is 85 years old. Down in East Harlem, 76 years old."
"The way we start to make people care is to make them feel. And the way you start to make people feel is through story. And the way you create proximity is through story."
"If we're fortunate, every one of us will grow older. The question isn't whether we need a safety net, it's whether we're willing to build the systems all of us will eventually have to rely on."
"By the time a person gets to a hospital, their environment has already shaped the outcome. It starts with the people and the buildings, and none of that is relevant unless people can actually afford to be there."
"Hope is not in the data. Hope is in the action. Hope is in the imagination."
"The future of longevity will not be shaped by any one sector. It will be shaped by how boldly we connect health, business, public health, technology, policy, and community."
"We don't have a money problem. We have a values and priorities problem."
"Place equals space plus purpose. Purpose is people. If you think people first, it's going to take this further."
"What could be less controversial than giving to a food bank? But companies haven't really thought through how that fits into a larger theory of community health."
"Don't let today's conversations become tomorrow's notes. The opportunity before us is extraordinary. The responsibility is ours."
"Get out of the mindset of thinking the safety net is only there to catch us in tragedy, and instead think about what we need to support us and lift us up so that we can be successful and thrive."
"The problem with health care is we think too much about care and not enough about health. We really have to take a pause and think deeply about what we want to prioritize as a society."
"Healthy aging is a lifelong endeavor, and it's a community-wide issue. It's shaped not only by the care people receive, but by where they live."
"Ask yourself: what are you doing, above and beyond what you do for pay, that's about giving of yourself? If everyone does something as simple as that, the difference we can make is game changing."
The moonshot needs leaders, funders, hosts, and neighbors.
One action in the next 30 days. One partner to call this week. The same card completed in the room at CHC's National Forum, now open to everyone, and every card joins the digital wall below.
Add your card to the wallYour investment backs programs that remove barriers to health and add healthy years in the communities carrying the widest gaps.
Give todayThe work is going on the road. Tell us where it's needed, and be first to know when we're coming to your community.
Raise your handA cross-sector body of leaders guiding the decade of work ahead: strategy, accountability, and reach.
Learn about LCHCThe wall started in one room. It's still growing.
At CHC's National Forum, leaders in the room wrote down two things: one action they'd take in the next 90 days, and one partner they'd call that week. Then they posted their cards on the wall. Those cards, the first commitments of the moonshot, now live here.
Read them. Then add your own.
The wall on July 23rd, before it went digital.
REPLACE with remaining scans
22 founding commitments from July 23rd. Every card below this line is from you.
This moonshot was never meant to stay in Washington, D.C.
The gap looks different in every city, and closing it will happen city by city, with local leaders, local funders, and residents at the table from the start. Tour stops will be announced as each city is confirmed.
CHC's National Forum was brought to life with our partners. Thank you.
The moonshot is a ten-year commitment, and it started with the people in one room. It grows with you.
Make Your Commitment