Health equity resources by practice

Spread the word about what creates health
Equip staff
Show organizational commitment
Authentically engage with the community
Collect and use data for change
Influence public policy
What do these practices mean?

To advance health equity, local health departments must engage in intentional practices to expand the understanding of what creates health, and call attention to existing health inequities. These efforts must occur within the local health department, within the larger city and/or county organization, with partners, and with the broader community. Local health departments already engage in many activities that have the potential to increase understanding and build commitment to health equity, including community health assessment and planning, health education and promotion, and engagement with elected officials.

Effective communication
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
This excerpt from a larger toolkit identifies strategies for communicating about health equity and social determinants of health.
tag(s): spread the word about what creates health, guides/toolkits, communicate with elected officials

Health and well-being for all: Accelerating learning about social determinants
CDC Foundation
This "meeting in a box" provides interactive materials you can use to discuss the factors that affect health, and for conversations about how to take action through teamwork and cross-sector collaboration. 
tag(s): spread the word about what creates health, guides/toolkits, change the narrative, build community relationships

Health equity: Make it your business
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota 
This website includes five short videos explaining different aspects of health inequities.
tag(s): spread the word about what creates health, equip staff, videos, help staff understand equity, change the narrative

A new way to talk about the social determinants of health 
RWJF: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
This document provides new ways to talk about the social determinants of health for policymakers and other audiences. 
tag(s): spread the word about what creates health, guides/toolkits, communicate with elected officials

While public health professionals may recognize the role social, economic and geographic forces play to shape health outcomes, many are not equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to take action on the root causes of health inequities, such as economic practices that limit job opportunities, school discipline policies that disproportionately impact certain groups, and housing/home ownership patterns based on race or socioeconomic status.

Addressing the social determinants of health through the community health improvement matrix 
National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
This brief discusses how to determine whether you address social determinants of health in community health improvement activities.
tag(s): equip staff, guides/toolkits

Allegories on race and racism 
Camara Jones via TEDx Talks
This video uses storytelling to discuss race and racism in the United States, and to empower people to take action to reduce racism. 
tag(s): equip staff, videos, help staff understand equity

Cliff analogy of health 
Camara Jones via Denver University
This video uses a cliff to illustrate why public health strategies need to move beyond individual services and address social determinants of health.
tag(s): equip staff, videos, help staff understand equity

Embracing equity in community health improvement
Health Resources in Action 
This paper discusses how to intentionally integrate equity into community health improvement planning. 
tag(s): equip staff, reports/articles

HealthEquityGuide.org
Human Impact Partners
This website identifies a set of practices for advancing equity, provides examples of health departments using those practices, and suggests actions and additional resources for health departments to advance health equity. 
tag(s): equip staff, guides/toolkits

Health equity: Make it your business
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota 
This website includes five short videos explaining different aspects of health inequities.
tag(s): spread the word about what creates health, equip staff, videos, help staff understand equity, change the narrative

Intercultural Development Inventory
The IDI is an online survey to assess inter-cultural competence at both an individual and organizational level. 
tag(s): equip staff, assessments

Let's talk
National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health 
This series of seven short documents is designed to promote understanding how key health equity concepts apply to public health practice. 
tag(s): equip staff, reports/articles

Managing unconscious bias
Facebook
These videos presents information about bias that is grounded in research, in a positive, accessible way. It describes what implicit bias is, where it originates, how different forms of bias play out in the workplace, and things you can do to counteract your biases. 
tag(s): equip staff, videos

Moving into equity: The public health journey
Public Health National Center for Innovations (PHNCI) 
This guide describes stages of organizational development related to health equity practice for public health departments. It provides practical tips, suggestions for overcoming challenges, and tools to use along the way.
tag(s): equip staff, guides/toolkits

Roots of health inequity 
National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
This structured online learning collaborative for public health practitioners will help improve and apply their knowledge and skills related to health equity. 
tag(s): equip staff, webinars/courses

Spent 
Urban Ministries of Durham
Spent is a quick and easy web-based game that builds understanding about how low-wage jobs affect individuals and families. 
tag(s): equip staff, webinars/courses, help staff understand equity, change the narrative

Targeted universalism
Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society
This brief, animated video explains the difference between a targeted universalism framework and more traditional policy approaches.
tag(s): equip staff, videos

Local health departments must focus efforts internally as well as externally. Health equity must be incorporated into organizational policies, processes, programs, and budgets if local activities are to achieve optimal health outcomes for all. Local health departments can work to integrate health equity into a variety of areas including urgent and non-urgent communications policies; health education and promotion policies; and staff recruitment, retention and training policies.

Advancing health equity: Key questions for assessing policy, processes, and assumptions 
Minnesota Department of Health
These key questions can help an organization consider equity in specific policies, processes, and assumptions. 
tag(s): show organizational commitment, assessments, assess a program/policy

Advancing the mission: Tools for equity, diversity, and inclusion 
Annie E. Casey Foundation
This resource contains eight tools to help organizations identify opportunities to integrate equity goals into their programs and operations.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, guides/toolkits, case studies, assess my organization, assess a program/policy

Equity and empowerment lens – first version 
Multnomah County, OR
This guide to a series of tools can help an organization assess programs or policies for equity impacts, and implement an action plan to improve equity. 
tag(s): show organizational commitment, guides/toolkits, assessments, case studies, assess my organization

Equity and empowerment lens [updated] 
Multnomah County, OR 
This updated version of an assessment tool helps you consider equity-related impacts of an issue, program, or policy decision and new tools to support action steps for advancing equity. 
tag(s): show organizational commitment, guides/toolkits, assessments, case studies, assess a program/policy

Equity and inclusion lens handbook 
City of Ottawa, City for All Women Initiative (CAWI)
This guide will help you apply an equity lens to a wide range of public health activities; it was developed to support Ottawa's work to embed equity into its programs and operations.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, guides/toolkits, assessments, assess a program/policy

Health equity at work: Skills assessment of public health staff
National Association of Chronic Disease Directors
This report shares recommendations and survey questions from a nationwide pilot survey to build workforce capacity to address health equity.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, assessments

Organizational self-assessment for addressing health inequities toolkit 
Bay Area Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII)
This toolkit provides data-gathering tools to help local health departments identify the skills and infrastructure they need to advance health equity.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, guides/toolkits, case studies, assessments

A practitioner's guide for advancing health equity: Community strategies for preventing chronic disease 
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
This guide helps public health professionals incorporate the goal of health equity into current public health practice.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, guides/toolkits, case studies, assess my organization

Public health department health equity assessment
Hennepin County
Hennepin County developed these surveys to assess its public health department's knowledge and practices related to equity.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, assessments

Racial equity and social justice tool 
City of Madison, WI 
This assessment tool evaluates how decisions might impact low-income populations and communities of color.
tag(s): show organizational commitment, assessments, case studies, assess a program/policy

To advance health equity, local health departments must explicitly include and engage with communities of color, American Indians, those in poverty, immigrant communities, and others experiencing health inequities. This engagement must be authentic; the local health department must go beyond forming intermittent relationships for the purposes of gaining feedback, and seek to build and sustain lasting relationships. In these relationships the local health department must be willing to listen and allow the community to lead the work. Engagement should not be used as a way to confirm or advance a preexisting idea or agenda. Local health departments can strengthen community relationships through their current engagement efforts in community health assessment and planning, health education and promotion, understanding and addressing barriers to health care access, and efforts to change policy.

Community engagement assessment tool 
Building the Field of Community Engagement
This tool helps organizations improve their community engagement efforts by assessing their activities on a scale from outreach to engagement.
tag(s): authentically engage with the community, assessments, build community relationships

THRIVE: Tool for Health & Resilience in Vulnerable Environments 
Prevention Institute 
THRIVE is a framework for understanding how community conditions impact health and a tool for engaging others to take action to improve those conditions. 
tag(s): authentically engage with the community, guides/toolkits

A health equity approach to data requires a process that both identifies health differences between population groups and examines and identifies the causes of these population differences in health. This means expanding data collected to include information about smaller ethnic and cultural communities, using data that focuses on the conditions that create health, and incorporating qualitative data to shed light on the root causes of health inequities and lead to solutions. It means looking beyond averages, engaging the community to understand what the data says, and using visuals, stories, and community voices to make data compelling and actionable. Local health departments can build on their current use of data to call attention to issues and create urgency for action.

Applying social determinants of health indicator data for advancing health equity
Bay Area Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII)
This guide describes how to collect, analyze, and share data related to the social determinants of health, and identifies a core set of fifteen indicators.
tag(s): collect and use data for change, guides/toolkits, case studies

Health equity data analysis (HEDA)
Minnesota Department of Health
This guide provides information on how to think about, collect, and analyze local data related to health equity. It provides a starting point for understanding how to document health inequities. 
tag(s): collect and use data for change, guides/toolkits and other resources.
tag(s): collect and use data for change, guides/toolkits

Creating the conditions in which people can be healthy requires policy solutions. Local health departments must learn to engage beyond health care and the education of individuals, and work with people outside of health on policies that shape the social and economic conditions in which people go about their daily lives (e.g., planning, zoning, recreation, transportation, and more). The work of local health departments in the area of policy includes maintaining an awareness of a broad range of policies under consideration; identifying policy solutions; and engaging, informing, and influencing those who set policies.

Health in all policies: A guide for state and local governments
PHI: Public Health Institute
This guide describes the Health in All Policies approach to health improvement and outlines action steps for implementing this strategy.
tag(s): influence public policy, guides/toolkits, case studies, work across sectors