Quick Guide
Definition: Provide opportunities for staff to learn and discuss equity topics and incorporate their learning into practice.
Why It Matters: Before equity infrastructure can be internally developed and put into practice, it is essential to learn the foundations of equity and become comfortable working with equity topics and preferences.
| Type | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Trainings | Prevention Institute Health Equity and Prevention Toolkit | The Health Equity and Prevention Primer (HEPP) leverages expertise from state and LHJ employees and equity leaders to build seven different training modules including Community Factors & How They Influence Health Equity; Enhancing Effective Partnerships for Health Equity; and Measurement and Evaluation for Health Equity. The toolkit focuses on how equity and prevention interventions can be combined to increase the health and safety of the community. |
| Trainings | Western Region Public Health Training Center - Health Equity Course | This training is a short (estimated 30 minutes) introduction on the concept of health equity with powerful resources and learning tools. |
| Webinars | Health Equity in Rural Communities | This webinar discusses rural health equity efforts in the state of Colorado and contains supplemental documents of real-life examples of equity work. While this resource is Colorado-centric, it is a helpful introduction to the concept of rural health equity and multi-partner collaboration necessary when addressing inequities in small, rural communities. Rural Resource |
| Guides | ASTHO Health Equity and Public Health Accreditation Guide | This is an introduction to equity from the Association of State and Territorial Health Offices (ASTHO) during the process of public health accreditation. The guide reviews how to integrate equity into your health department for accreditation, with real world examples from other health departments. |
| Frameworks | The Health Equity Framework | This article describes a Health Equity Framework (HEF) model to understand how health outcomes are affected by the complex relationships between people and their environment. The framewok is a tool that allows public health workers to understand and reflect on how addressing health inequities in their community can lead to positive changes in mutliple spheres of influence, from the entire community down to the individual. |
| Articles | What Are Health Disparities and Health Equity? We Need to be Clear | This brief article defines the concepts of health disparities and health equity in easy-to-understand terms. The article also explains why solid definitions are important when working with equity, and how language can help mitigate disparities. |
| Articles | What is Health Equity? A Definition and Discussion Guide | This report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, contains definitions of health equity terms, key stages to enact equity in your organization, and examples of advancing health equity. It also serves as a model for enacting group discussions around what equity means to an organization and what equity “action” looks like. |
| Type | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Nantucket Health and Human Services Department Workforce Development Plan | This Workforce Development Plan from Nantucket, Massachusetts goes into topics broader than equity, but provides a great example of how to integrate diversity and equity priorities in workforce development. It also explores an equity needs assessment and equity training plans within its development plan. |
| Examples | King County Affinity Groups | This example shows the Affinity Groups for the county staff in King County, Washington. This page lists the different groups, as well as mission and purpose statements. Forming affinity groups is a way to support diversity within your organization. |
| Trainings | Health Equity Consultants | This is a list of equity consultants compiled by CDPH representatives, but not endorsed or necessarily recommended by CDPH. |
| Trainings | Race Forward Racial Justice Training | ($100 fee, scholarships available) These interactive training modules are focused on advancing racial equity and understanding the roots of structural racism. Organizations should start with the training "Building Racial Equity” then continue learning with additional trainings, including “Organizing Racial Equity: Shifting Power” and/or “Decision-Making for Racial Equity.” |
| Guides | Moving Into Equity : The Public Health Journey | This guide focuses on how to increase your organization’s equity development from "Content with the Status Quo" to "Committed, Engaged, and Activated." The guide has a checklist to see where your department is and recommendations for each step on how to move further down the equity journey. |
| Guides | ASTHO Workforce Development Plan Toolkit | The Association of State and Territorial Health Offices (ASTHO) Workforce Development Guide gives examples and resources on how to integrate equity into an organization's workforce development plan. A notable example to review includes Ohio State's workforce development plan, which requires staff to receive health equity training. |
| Frameworks | Center for Addition and Mental Health:Health Equity and Inclusion Framework | This framework demonstrates the process of integrating health equity into trainings. Organizations can use the framework (as a guide) to review trainings of all topics to make sure they are appropriate for the organization, and equitable in content and delivery methods. |
| Articles | Development, Implementation, and Assessment of Health Equity Action Training (HEAT) | This article recounts Hartford, Connecticut's Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) equity training initiative. The article details training development, final curriculum, and staff response. |
| 2023 CA LHJ Examples | Marin County Health and Human Services CI-CARE Trainings and Talking Circles | Established across all of Marin County HHS, 450 staff received initial trainings in CI-CARE, a client experience tool developed by UCLA Health System to increase client satisfaction across HHS. 24 CI-CARE Champions received the train-the-trainer version to support new staff training & education within their divisions. Marin developed an agency-wide client experience survey to track client satisfaction, including any themes attributed to race, class, & gender. 250 staff completed 5 months of Embodied Awareness Talking Circles, a practice for staff to learn and exercise effective tools for dialogue within the organization. Marin County internally developed this series, in partnership with a consultant, inspired by frameworks for dialogue that have roots in many Indigenous nations and people around the world. Marin County offers on-demand trainings from myriad programs that focus on unconscious bias, microaggressions in the workplace, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and psychological safety at work. |
| 2023 CA LHJ Examples | Racial Healing Conversation Guide | Stanislaus County has provided opportunities for staff to learn and discuss equity topics through peer learning, Equity Co-LABS (Collaboratively Learning in Authentically Brave Spaces), as well as shared tools and resources. They host Co-LABS once per quarter to allow staff to reflect on a topic, heritage month, or awareness campaign and its interconnection to public health. Co-LABS have provided a space for staff members and community partners to connect as many of the Co-LABS are facilitated in partnership with a community-based organization. Providing space through Co-LABS is one strategy that Stanislaus County is implementing to cultivate an inclusive work environment where all staff can be their authentic selves. Stanislaus County also has a monthly newsletter that provides staff with additional resources and trainings to continue self-reflection on their health & racial equity exploration & healing. Note: Stanislaus did not create the linked resource but found it really helpful. |
| Type | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | King County Racial Equity Caucusing Report, 2019 | This is a summary of the Washington Department of Health affinity group project, including the purpose and mission of the groups, questions posed to each affinity group about their experiences, feedback from the groups, and how the initiative will impact the organizational anti-racism goals. |
| Trainings | NACCHO Roots of Health Inequality Training | This is a group training with a discussion focused curriculum, where participants learn from and contribute to the training environment. Groups will learn how to start the conversation around health inequities, how values and assumptions shape organizational commitment to equity, public health history, root causes of inequities, and how to use social justice concepts to advance equity. Each module comes with a discussion guide, examples from the field, and presentations. |
| Guides | University of Kansas Community Toolbox: Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Your Community | This guide reflects on addressing equity in a community once organizational staff receives a general introduction to equity and equity efforts gain leadership support. |
| 2023 CA LHJ Examples | Napa County Health and Human Services Agency Race and Cultural Equity Policy Tool | In response to the growing indigenous and Mixteco speaking population in Napa County, and the need for interpretation services, Napa County Health and Human Services Agency contracted with CIELO (Comunidades Indigenas En Liderazgo) and MCUI (Movimiento Cultural de la Unión Indígena) to provide language interpretation in Mixteco and its many localized variants as well as a cultural awareness training. All policies and procedures within Public Health have been analyzed through the Race and Cultural Equity toolkit. |