Latest Updates
December 10, 2019
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
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
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
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
HIP blog post by Megan Gaydos on the ways health departments are using a power analysis to advance health equity.
August 13, 2019
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
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
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
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
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
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
HIP blog post by Martha Ockenfels-Martinez on 3 ways to center community in public health research.
March 12, 2019
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
HIP blog post by Martha Ockenfels-Martinez, on her takeaways from PolicyLink's Equity Summit in Chicago.
April 16, 2018
HIP blog post by Megan Gaydos summarizing lessons learned from our Advancing Health Equity in Health Departments webinar series.
March 1, 2018
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
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
HIP blog post by Ana Tellez shares immigration and education highlights from the recent Netroots Nation conference.
July 12, 2017
| 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 […]
