Glossary

Access needs

An access need is something a person needs in order to communicate, learn, and take part in an activity or meeting at their fullest. Everyone has access needs, not just people with disabilities. In a virtual meeting, access needs might include things like the need to have a camera off, move around, eat or drink, read captions, have someone read aloud what's in the chat, or take care of children during a meeting. In an in-person meeting, access needs might include the need to have a meeting in a particular location, airborne illness precautions, a sign language interpreter, ramps, elevators, or dim or bright lighting.

Source: HIP's Disability Justice and Access Team

Community power-building

Community power-building is the set of strategies used by communities most impacted by structural inequity to develop, sustain and grow an organized base of people who act together through democratic structures to set agendas, shift public discourse, influence who makes decisions and cultivate ongoing relationships of mutual accountability with decision-makers that change systems and advance health equity. Community power building is particularly critical for underserved, underrepresented, and historically marginalized communities who have been excluded from decision-making on the policies and practices that impact their health and the health of their communities.

Source: Lead Local Glossary

Community power-building organizations (CPBOs)

Organizations that may be identified by geography (local, state, regional, national), demography (e.g. youth, workers, multi-racial) or issue(s) (e.g. workers rights, environmental justice, multi-issue) who conduct a range of activities including base-building. Other terms sometimes used to describe CBPOs include but are not limited to: grassroots organizing groups, social movement groups, movement-building organizations, community-based organizations, community organizing groups, base building groups.

Source: Lead Local Glossary

Health equity

Everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. Achieving this requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty and discrimination and their consequences, which include powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay; quality education, housing, and health care; and safe environments.

Source: What is Health Equity?, Braveman, P., et al. (2018), Behavioral Science & Policy

Health inequities

Differences in health status and mortality rates across population groups that are systemic, avoidable, unfair, and unjust (e.g., breast cancer mortality for Black women versus white women).

Source: Adapted by Human Impact Partners from Margaret Whitehead, World Health Organization

Inside/outside strategy

A specific, concerted effort of public health systems and community power-building organizations (CPBOs) working in partnership to achieve a common aim. This strategy relies on each member of the partnership to leverage its specific powers, resources (financial and others), and strengths to effect policy and system changes that will lead to just and equitable outcomes in communities.

Source: Working definition developed by Human Impact Partners informed by HIP blog posts; Be Freedom; Beautiful Trouble; Health Justice Through the Lens of Power; and expertise of HIP staff.

Narratives

The values-based meta-stories that we use to understand our world. A narrative communicates and reinforces a worldview and engages people in considering their own understanding of the world around them, working to shift public consciousness and change what is possible.

Source: Narratives for Health | County Health Rankings and Roadmaps

Power

“Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, or economic changes.”

Source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Where Do We Go From Here?”

Power imbalances

Situations where there is an unequal distribution of power between groups or individuals, often leading to one party having dominance over another. Structural oppression exists because power is distributed unevenly across different dimensions such as race, gender, class, and sexuality, leading to dominant groups having greater influence and control over resources, decision-making, and norms within a society.

Source: From Human Impact Partners' Theory of Change

Racial justice

A vision and transformation of society to eliminate racial hierarchies and advance collective liberation, where Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, in particular, have the dignity, resources, power, and self-determination to fully thrive.

Source: What is Racial Equity? | Race Forward

Root causes

The reciprocal relationship between power imbalances and systems of oppression, which are the ultimate drivers of health inequities. Systems of oppression create power imbalances, and power imbalances reinforce systems of oppression. These, in turn, shape inequities in social, economic, and environmental conditions, which lead to health inequities.

Source: From Human Impact Partners' Theory of Change

Shared leadership

Moving away from the leader/follower binary; capitalizing on the importance of leaders throughout the organization, not just those in positions of authority; and creating an infrastructure so that organizations can benefit from the leadership of multiple people.

Source: Shared Leadership in Higher Education, Kezar, A.J., and Holcombe, E.J. (2017), American Council on Education

Social determinants of health (SDoH)

Conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Source: Social Determinants of Health, Healthy People 2030

Social justice movements

When groups of people come together to bring about change and solve problems that no one person or institution can solve alone. They often inspire people to see the world not as it is, but as it could be. Successful social movements make the impossible possible. Social justice movements, at their core, fundamentally challenge power-holds and the status quo in order to eliminate inequality, exclusion, and injustice rooted in oppression. They educate and mobilize people to actively support that change.

Source: What is Movement Building? How You Can Help Build Strong Movements for Social Justice, Everyday Activism Network (2021)

Systems of oppression

Identify inequity by calling attention to the historical and organized patterns of mistreatment. In the United States, systems of oppression (like systemic racism) are woven into the very foundation of American culture, society, and laws. Other examples of systems of oppression are sexism, heterosexism, ableism, classism, ageism, and anti-Semitism. Society's institutions, such as government, education, and culture, all contribute or reinforce the oppression of marginalized social groups while elevating dominant social groups.

Source: Social Identities and Systems of Oppression, National Museum of African American History and Culture

Structural racism

A system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on phenotype (“race”), that:

• Unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities
• Unfairly advantages other individuals and communities
• Undermines realization of the full potential of the whole society through the waste of human resources

Source: Confronting Institutionalized Racism, Dr. Camara Jones (2002)

Transformative change

Involves fundamental changes in the structures and systems that shape group outcomes, such as governmental and institutional policies and practices. These changes can be more durable over time and have greater effects as they alleviate the causes of problems—not just their effects.

Source: Adapted from Othering and Belonging Institute: Transactional versus Transformative Change