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Development Level Title Description
Early Get Serious About Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion : 4 Reasons You Need a Dedicated DEI Team This article may be helpful for organizations that are looking into forming a dedicated equity team. A section on how to support your dedicated equity team upon formation is also included.
Established Operationalizing Equity: How To Implement An Equity Action Plan This article provides a comprehensive guide on creating and executing an equity action plan within organizations. It emphasizes the importance of integrating equity into all aspects of operations and offers practical steps and examples to achieve this goal.
Strong DEI Steering Committee - Part 1: 3 Steps to Forming an Effective DEI Steering Committee This article is a 3-part series that includes information on forming a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee, sustaining DEI efforts, and futureproofing the work of the committee. Links to part 2 and 3 are in the article.
Development Level Title Description
Early What Are Health Disparities and Health Equity? We Need to be Clear This brief article defines the concepts of health disparities and health equity in easy-to-understand terms. The article also explains why solid definitions are important when working with equity, and how language can help mitigate disparities.
Early What is Health Equity? A Definition and Discussion Guide This report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, contains definitions of health equity terms, key stages to enact equity in your organization, and examples of advancing health equity. It also serves as a model for enacting group discussions around what equity means to an organization and what equity “action” looks like.
Established Development, Implementation, and Assessment of Health Equity Action Training (HEAT) This article recounts Hartford, Connecticut's Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) equity training initiative. The article details training development, final curriculum, and staff response.
Development Level Title Description
Early Advancing Healthcare and CBOs to Address Social Determinants of Health This executive summary focuses on the collaboration between three healthcare-CBO partnerships. It is intended to help refine relationship with current or existing partners and/or agencies exploring new collaborations.
Early CBOs Perspective on Improving Health and Social Services Integration This article discusses the perspectives of CBOs on service delivery and suggestions for improving health system partnerships. To create lasting and sustainable partnerships, CBOs must feel supported and the relationship must be mutually beneficial.
Early Collaboration Between Health Systems and CBOs This executive summary highlights different approaches to overcoming early challenges in forming new partnerships. It provides examples and discusses common themes and lessons learned. Each strategy ensures the voices of the CBOs and their communities are valued in the priority setting and decision-making process.
Established Amplifying Multilingual Voices for Inclusive Public Health Research This article emphasizes the importance of including limited-English proficient (LEP) populations in public health research to advance health equity. It outlines practical strategies for amplifying multilingual voices, including using professional translators with cultural and subject matter expertise, and employing bilingual moderators for interviews and focus groups to build trust and elicit deeper insights. The piece highlights how culturally attuned research design—especially in survey translation and qualitative data collection—can lead to more accurate, inclusive, and actionable findings in public health research.
Strong Partnership for Healthy Communities When it comes to a healthy community, the University of Delaware’s Partnership for Healthy Communities (PHC) understands that place matters. Through the culmination of lived experiences and empirical research, there is a well-established understanding that there are healthy communities and less healthy communities and that this is a result of varying conditions in these communities, conditions referred to as the social determinants of health (SDoH). These varying conditions have been produced and reproduced through political systems, economic and social policies, and social norms, and resulted in persistent health inequities. PHC utilizes this knowledge and evidence to inform the collaborations and investments with communities that have the most to gain in the state of Delaware. Through a description of its four strategic partnerships, we outline how an equity, place-based approach guides our collaborative work to achieve health equity in our state.
Strong Study: Exploring How Health Equity is Addressed in Accountable Communities of/for Health (ACHs) This study by PHI’s Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) examines how Accountable Communities for Health (ACHs) in California and Washington are advancing health equity through multisector collaboration. It identifies five key strategies: providing equity education and training, including diverse community voices in decision-making, changing organizational practices, improving and developing services, and fostering a culture that centers equity. The report highlights the importance of dedicated backbone support, formalized equity commitments, and community partnerships as core features of the ACH model.
Strong A Community-Based Participatory Approach to the Development and Implementation of an HIV Health Behavior Intervention This study documents the implementation of Project HAPPY, an HIV prevention initiative for African American youth in the Southern U.S., using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model. The article highlights key lessons learned from the project, including the importance of establishing a continuous feedback loop with community members, conducting regular community inventories to avoid service duplication, and preparing for shifts in partner engagement. Additional insights include consulting with Institutional Review Boards early to prevent delays, offering meaningful incentives to participants, and maintaining multiple points of contact with community partners to manage staff turnover effectively.
Development Level Title Description
Early Using Public Deliberation to Set Priorities: The Case of COVID-19 Vaccine Access in New York City The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a record number of deaths in the United States and tremendous economic and personal strain. During 2020, in anticipation of a vaccine to slow the spread of disease, local and state governments in the United States developed plans for vaccine prioritization, given a limited initial supply. Recognizing the challenges inherent in prioritization, the New York City (NYC) health department sought guidance from members of the public about the fairest approach to early-stage vaccine distribution.
Established Co-designing a participatory evaluation of older adult partner engagement in the Mcmaster Collaborative for Health and Aging "Engagement of patients and the public in health research is crucial for ensuring research relevance and alignment with community needs. However, there is a lack of nuanced evaluations and examples that promote collaborative and reflective learning about partnerships with partners. The aim of this paper is to provide a case example of a participatory evaluation of the engagement of older adult partners in an aging-focused research centre. We outline our process of co-planning and implementing an evaluation of the McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging’s engagement strategy through the use of multiple methods, including a standardized tool and qualitative approaches. The team chose to explore and capture the engagement experiences and perspectives of the older adult partners within the Collaborative using a survey (the Public and Patient Engagement Evaluation Tool (PPEET)), an art-based method (photovoice), and a focus group."
Development Level Title Description
Early Partners in Promoting Health Equity in Communities The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine presents a chapter titled Partners in Promoting Health Equity in Communities, which explores the diverse roles that cross-sector partners play in advancing health equity. The chapter emphasizes that public health agencies, community-based organizations, businesses, educational institutions, and financial institutions each bring unique assets to equity-focused work. Through real-world examples, it illustrates how partnerships grounded in shared values, trust, and community engagement can address the social determinants of health. The chapter also highlights the importance of inclusive leadership and sustained collaboration. Recommendations are included to guide communities in building effective, equity-centered partnerships that improve health outcomes and foster systemic change.
Established Government + research + philanthropy: How cross‐ sector partnerships can improve policy decisions and action Researchers often lament that government decision‐makers do not generate or use research evidence. People in government often lament that researchers are not responsive to government's needs. Yet there is increasing enthusiasm in government, research, and philanthropy sectors for developing, investing in, and sustaining government‐research partnerships that focus on government's use of evidence. There is, however, scant guidance about how to do so. To help fill the gap, this essay addresses (1) Why government‐research partnerships matter; (2) Barriers to developing government‐research partnerships; (3) Strategies for addressing the barriers; (4) The role of philanthropy in government‐research partnerships. The momentum to develop, invest in, and sustain cross‐sector partnerships that advance government's use of evidence is exciting. It is especially encouraging that there are feasible and actionable strategies for doing so.
Established Supporting Change Agents Across Sectors to Improve Health and Equity in Rural Communities This article describes how cross sector collaboration is important to improving health and equity in rural communities. Rural Resource.
Strong Expanding opportunities for chronic disease prevention for Hispanics: the Better Together REACH program in Pennsylvania Hispanics in Lebanon and Reading, Pennsylvania, experience high levels of socioeconomic and health disparities in risk factors for chronic disease. For the past 4 years, our coalition has leveraged strong community collaborations to implement and evaluate culturally-tailored practice- and evidence-based activities aimed at increasing physical activity, healthy nutrition, and community-clinical linkages. This community case report summarizes the context where our overall program was implemented, including the priority population, target geographical area, socioeconomic and health disparities data, community-academic coalition, conceptual model, and details the progress of the Better Together initiative in the two communities impacted.
Strong Mobilizing Cross- Sector Collaborations to Improve Population Health in U.S. Rural Communities: A Qualitative Stud This study provides four case studies of rural communities working to advance health equity through cross-sector partnerships and provides rural specific strategies. Rural Resource.
Strong Improving Cross- Sector Collaborations in Place-Based Population Health Projects This article provides a framework and recommendations on how to navigate cross-sector partnerships in complex population health projects.
Development Level Title Description
Early CDC: Communicating About Health Equity Concepts (CHEC) CDC’s Office of Health Equity (OHE) conducted message testing in 2022 to learn what diverse audiences think, understand, and feel about the concept of health equity. Results from OHE’s 2022 message testing helped develop three principles and strategies to improve communication about health equity concepts with diverse audiences.
Early Health Equity: Moving from the Margins to the Center This article is written by Dr. Anthony Iton from the California Endowment. The article serves both as an explanation of foundational equity concepts and as a reflection on Dr. Iton’s time serving communities in California. Principles of equity, and the reasoning behind them, complement the real-life examples of Dr. Iton’s time developing power- building activities for the community of Alameda County.
Established Public Health Workforce Perceptions About Organizational Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:Results From PH WINS 2021 This article presents results from a national U.S. survey on public health workers’ perceived organizational commitment to DEI. The article concludes that a foundational commitment to equity must be seen in the organization before equity initiatives are started in order to have maximum impact on staff. Essentially, policies that are aimed at increasing equity capacity must feel as though they are being done purposefully and intentionally.
Strong Transparency: A central principle underpinning trustworthy guidelines This article discusses the importance of transparency when creating communications for the public. In order to earn community trust, guidelines and notices from your organization must be very clear, including information about where you acquire data sources and the cost/benefit analysis of decisions.
Strong CDC’s Guiding Principles to Promote an Equity-Centered Approach to Public Health Communication This article describes the impetus for, development of, and public health applications and implications of CDC’s Health Equity Guiding Principles to guide communication efforts.
Development Level Title Description
Early Integrating Equity in a Public Health Funding Strategy This article presents a practical approach for incorporating equity into common and competitive funding procedures for public health programs and demonstrates how integrating equitable strategies can better direct decision-makers in allocating funding and resources.
Early Investing in Public Health and Community Partnerships Reduced COVID-19–Related Disparities As Dauphin and Liburd emphasize, the public health system depended on federal funding to focus strategies on populations that experienced the greatest burden of COVID-19; this is particularly important given the chronic resource constraints public health departments face. This collection of articles illustrates that the HDG initiative was a crucial resource across state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. It made possible effective community engagement strategies, creative funding, and data-informed prevention and mitigation strategies, and it established CHWs as essential members of the public health workforce.
Strong How to Measure Community Engagement and Its Impact Measuring community engagement helps you track the quality of participatory activities, improve related processes, and show residents and stakeholders how their input influences decision-making. Below we present a set of community engagement metrics, or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)— select those that relate to your end goals and planning directions and set up an infrastructure for tracking (we have some tips on that below). These KPIs for community engagement can be used for a single project and on an organization-wide level.
Strong Braiding and Layering Funding: Doing More With What We Have Braiding and layering funding demands the active engagement of leadership, a shared sense of purpose and vision, formalized communication and collaborative decision-making processes, well-established administrative procedures for cost allocation and reporting functions, and dedicated staff.
Development Level Title Description
Early Shifting and Sharing Power: Public Health's Charge in Building Community Power This article provides examples of health departments, including Alameda County, CA, sharing power with community organizations to work towards a common agenda. It also lists the three dimensions of power to consider when partnering for decision making.
Early Forming Partnerships With Public Health Departments, Part 1:Why it's a Good Idea This article describes the benefits of partnerships between public health staff and community organizers.
Early 8 Ways to Connect with Your Public Health Department The article is intended for community organizers who are interested in collaborating with public health department leaders to advance racial justice and health equity. The San Francisco Public Health Department and Alameda County Public Health Department are highlighted for their collaborations with community-based organizations.
Early Why Community Power is Fundamental to Advancing Racial and Health Equity This article describes why community power building is more effective than community engagement to advance health and racial equity. The Alameda County Public Health Department is referenced as an example of a local health department partnering with a community-based organization in order to change housing policy.
Established How Health Departments Can Promote a Healthy, Inclusive Democracy A blog post that covers ways in which health departments can promote a healthy, inclusive democracy through Using Existing Touchpoints for Education and Awareness, Bringing Voting Into Health Assessments, Collaborating With Local Partners Championing Voting Rights and Access, Making an Organizational Commitment to Vote
Development Level Title Description
Established 10 DEI Metrics Your Organization Should Track This article shows you the 10 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) metrics organizations should track. DEI metrics measure fairness in the workplace, strengths of your organization’s brand, and overall employee satisfaction. If you are unsure of how to calculate these metrics the article includes the formula you would use, along with examples.
Development Level Title Description
Established Advancing Equity in Local Health Departments: An Inside-Out Approach The North Carolina Division of Public Health, Chronic Disease and Injury Section recommends local health departments (LHDs) adopt an “inside-out” approach to advance health and racial equity. Internally, LHDs must increase their capacity to address equity by establishing LHD policies and practices that prioritize equity and nurture a culture of trust. Externally, LHDs must seek guidance from historically marginalized populations to inform LHD policy changes and community-based public health approaches affecting these populations for greater engagement in LHD programs.
Established State Reported Efforts to Address Health Disparities: A 50 State Review This analysis focuses on current state efforts, many of which were implemented during or after 2020, to address health disparities and advance health equity based on a review of publicly available materials from all 50 states and DC. In addition, case study interviews were conducted with 14 stakeholders in three states (California, North Dakota, and Michigan) to increase understanding of the factors contributing to success of these state initiatives, lessons learned, and potential implications for other states. The case study initiatives reflect some of the broad themes of state-level activities identified through the analysis of publicly available materials and include states with varied geography, racial and ethnic demographics, and political leadership (See Methods for more details.)
Established Equity & Inclusion: The Roots of Organizational Well-Being This article discusses the need to go beyond simply adopting standard diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in order to build healthy and resilient organizations. Strategies include building capacity to develop new skills, creating an environment where DEI can grow, and implementing equitable systems internally and externally.
Development Level Title Description
Established A Rising Tide: Increasing Rural Local Health Department Capacity to Address the Social Determinants of Health - Data and Evaluation (Page 13 & 21) The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe five essential themes within rural local health departments to combat social determinants of health in their communities: Partnerships, Leadership, Community Engagement, Data & Evaluation, and Strategic Planning. (Rural Resource)
Strong GIS for Equity and Social Justice The purpose of this article is to outline how GIS is effective for ESJ practices. Geospatial topics covered include spatial data management, data sources, geospatial analysis, cartography, data visualization, and management dashboards. This resource is best suited for GIS Users, GIS Toolmakers, GIS Scientists, and ESJ practitioners from other disciplines.