Latest Updates

December 10, 2019

Health Equity Tip #12: Name Your Long-Term Vision

As 2019 draws to a close, we encourage you to reflect on what you’ve thought through in the past few months (tips #8, #9, #10, and #11) and verbalize for yourself the vision you want for yourself, your loved ones, and our society.
November 12, 2019

Health Equity Tip #11: Practice Leading with our Humanity

Connecting about shared values enables us to lean into trust during harder conversations. This month, practice identifying shared values and taking a small, strategic risk in conversation with someone in your life.
October 18, 2019

Health Equity Tip #10: Practice Analyzing the Narrative

In this month’s tip, we practice analyzing and changing the dominant narrative around an important topic: the climate crisis. In addition to exacerbating health inequities at exponential levels, the climate crisis is a topic whose narrative is (with much necessity) shifting rapidly.
September 10, 2019

Health Equity Tip #9: Sharpen Your Analysis

To change the status quo with strategic narratives, we need to first develop a shared analysis - of how racism is a system of advantage and how master narratives limit our efforts to address inequities. This month's tip helps us begin developing a shared analysis using critical race theory.
September 5, 2019

Building Momentum Towards Equity in Public Health

HIP blog post by Megan Gaydos on the ways health departments are using a power analysis to advance health equity.
August 13, 2019

Health Equity Tip #8: Identify Master Narratives About Health

One key facet of power is being able to influence people’s worldview. Narrative work matters because the root of health inequities is the unequal distribution of power upheld by racism, classism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of oppression. Let’s dive in together into master narratives about health.
July 9, 2019

Health Equity Tip #7 (Summer Edition): Find Your Squad

We can’t build something new without imagining it first. This summer, we're kicking off a new set of Health Equity Tips to help deepen relationships and dismantle master narratives. The first step is finding colleagues/allies/peeps to connect and imagine with.
June 11, 2019

Health Equity Tip #6: Identify Meaningful Community Engagement Guidelines

Meaningful and inclusive community engagement is an important way to “practice what you preach” with regards to advancing equity. One way to ensure meaningful community engagement in health department practice is to identify your department’s current policy - if one exists - and propose changes if needed.
June 5, 2019

Share your experience: Survey on Health Department-Community Organizer Collaborations

Community organizers can be excellent partners for local and state health departments to meaningfully engage communities and advance equity. If you work at a health department and you or your staff have collaborated with community organizers, we would love to hear about your experiences! Please take and/or share this 15 minute survey!
May 20, 2019

Health Equity Tip #5: Agree on a Definition of ‘Structural Racism’

Establishing shared definitions is a critical step in health equity work. Agreeing on a definition of structural racism establishes racism as a determinant of health and opens conversations about what your department is doing to address or reinforce structural racism.
April 9, 2019

Health Equity Tip #4: Propose using an Equity Tool

Applying an equity tool to an existing program or policy in your health department can be a concrete way to engage other staff members in discussions about structural racism and systems change. Equity tools can open space to reflect on existing dynamics and status quo, and identify new solutions or opportunities for advancing equity.
March 26, 2019

Listen, Love, and Build Power (Part 2): Lessons to Guide Public Health Research

HIP blog post by Martha Ockenfels-Martinez on 3 ways to center community in public health research.
March 12, 2019

Health Equity Tip #03: Meet with Another Government Employee

Proactively connecting with govt employees in other agencies can help support collaborative, equity-focused work. In fact, it's critical to be proactive because directly and indirectly, government is responsible for many of the structures that have created and maintained racism and power imbalances in our society.
February 27, 2019

Connecting the Dots: Health Inequities, Power, and the Potential for Public Health’s Transformational Role

HIP blog post by Jonathan Heller on the ways power imbalances perpetuate health inequities — and what public health can do to shift power for health.
February 15, 2019

When “Upstream” Public Health Efforts Fall Short

HIP blog post by Nashira Baril on the pitfalls of "health equity" work without an analysis of structural systems of oppression — and a call to realign for true equity.
February 14, 2019

Evaluation Finds Health Equity Guide widely used

In its first 18 months, over 23,000 people from 90 countries visited HIP’s Health Equity Guide website. Our recent evaluation reveals that hundreds of local and state health department staff are using the Health Equity Guide to advance health equity — both internally within their departments and externally with communities and other government agencies. Check out how the resource is influencing public health practice...
February 12, 2019

Health Equity Tip #02: Grab Coffee with a Community Organizer

Community organizers tend to work on improving the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health — even if they don’t use those words — and so their work may align and complement the work that you're doing to address health inequities. Part of the Health Equity Tips & Tactics monthly email series.
January 8, 2019

Health Equity Tip #01: Organize an Informal Hangout

Organizational transformation begins at the personal level. It's important to focus energy on developing deep and real relationships with those who are in this work w/ us. Part of the Health Equity Tips & Tactics monthly email series.
December 3, 2018

Where to Start with Transformative Health Equity Work: Lessons Learned from Minnesota

HIP blog post by Megan Gaydos on the experiences and lessons learned by the Minnesota Department of Health team with their Health Equity Data Analysis action tool.
November 26, 2018

New Case Study: Los Angeles County Diverts Justice-Involved Youth

Los Angeles County Health Agency (CA) is advancing health equity by establishing the Division of Youth Diversion and Development to equitably promote youth well-being and life opportunities by limiting early contact with the justice system.
November 26, 2018

New Case Study: Rice County Conducts Equity Analysis and Develops a Health Equity Plan

Rural Rice County Public Health (MN) used a small grant to complete a health equity organizational assessment and develop a health equity plan to build department and community momentum to advance health equity.
October 31, 2018

Raising the bar: Advancing health equity through higher accreditation standards

HIP blog post by Megan Gaydos on health equity recommendations HIP and advisors developed for the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) as PHAB updates their national accreditation standards.
May 3, 2018

Listen, Love, and Build Power: 3 Things I Learned at the Equity Summit

HIP blog post by Martha Ockenfels-Martinez, on her takeaways from PolicyLink's Equity Summit in Chicago.
April 16, 2018

6 Pro-Tips from Health Equity Champions

HIP blog post by Megan Gaydos summarizing lessons learned from our Advancing Health Equity in Health Departments webinar series.
March 1, 2018

Advancing Health Equity in Health Departments Webinar Series

Between November 2017 and February 2018, HIP hosted a 4-part webinar series with national experts and local health departments to to discuss their work to advance health equity.
February 1, 2018

Power: The Most Fundamental Cause of Health Inequity?

The Health Affairs Blog covered the need to address power as a determinant of public health in an important piece by Marjory Givens, David Kindig, Paula Tran Inzeo, and Victoria Faust. The piece also includes HIP’s Public Health Awakened network as an example of public health building relationships with community organizing groups!
August 21, 2017

Finding inspiration at Netroots Nation

HIP blog post by Ana Tellez shares immigration and education highlights from the recent Netroots Nation conference.
July 12, 2017

New Resource Helps Health Departments Build Power for Health Equity

| Press Release | Oakland, CA — After years of struggling to close health disparities, a new movement has taken root: health departments are taking on racial and social justice. Health departments are confronting the power imbalances and forms of oppression at the root of health inequities, changing the conversation about […]