Plan for Sustainability

How public health departments can plan for sustainability throughout all stages of their health equity and racial justice efforts

Sustaining health equity and racial justice efforts over the long term is vital for public health departments to effect transformative change. Addressing power imbalances and systems of oppression requires long-term timeframes that go beyond political cycles. Thus, a sustainability plan, that can withstand changes in the political environment, is crucial for ensuring lasting impact and success.

Key strategies of sustainability planning include:

• Strengthen infrastructure and expand capacity, working to embed an equity analysis and strategies across all roles and functions
• Continue to deepen relationships and partnerships for effective inside/outside strategy
• Support broad leadership development across roles in the organization so that people with positional power and people with implementation roles are working together to make decisions and continue using an equity lens
• Develop and implement mechanisms to collect and share data and learnings, for ongoing accountability and quality improvement
• Maintain and expand the container for equity work across the organization, which will support deepening shared analysis, shared leadership, and more innovative strategies to advance equity
• Strengthen organizational culture to center equity and justice, value relationships and reflection, and support creativity and courage

By prioritizing equity and sustainability, health departments and their partners can create sustainable positive change that benefits individuals, communities, and society.

Action Steps health departments can take to sustain their health equity and racial justice efforts:

• Develop multi-year strategic action plans for building and sustaining your equity work — utilize evaluation data and collaborate with community members to set goals and actions, keeping in mind the resources, political context, and organizational capacity to advance health equity and racial justice
• Establish baseline funding in the organizational budget for equity work, including ongoing resources for equity work in the organization’s budget; cultivate relationships with potential funders and explore ways to diversify funding for equity and racial justice work
• Build capacity to normalize and standardize the use of racial equity lens tools in all programs, policy, and decision-making to support explicit consideration of equity and community impact during planning
• Continue to cultivate a shared understanding of how all aspects of public health can and must advance health equity and racial justice. Intentionally engage all staff in the planning and implementation of equity work, including ongoing spaces for learning and dialogue, to connect everyone’s work to equity goals and build collective identity as a part of a larger health equity movement
• Develop long-term inside/outside strategies with community power-building organizations and other community partners to mobilize resources and support work toward transformational policy and systems change