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All the resources in this page fall under the "Established" Development Level, which corresponds with a 5-6 on the Equity Development scale. A "5" means work from the competency has been fully integrated into organization with evidence of use in policies, procedures, etc. A "6" signifies that the equity work is sustainable, ongoing, and can be shared as a "best practice" for other LHJs.

Type Title Description
Articles A Community-Based Participatory Approach to the Development and Implementation of an HIV Health Behavior Intervention This study documents the implementation of Project HAPPY, an HIV prevention initiative for African American youth in the Southern U.S., using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) model. The article highlights key lessons learned from the project, including the importance of establishing a continuous feedback loop with community members, conducting regular community inventories to avoid service duplication, and preparing for shifts in partner engagement. Additional insights include consulting with Institutional Review Boards early to prevent delays, offering meaningful incentives to participants, and maintaining multiple points of contact with community partners to manage staff turnover effectively.
Webinars Bridging the Gap: How to Build and Sustain Effective Multidisciplinary Collaboration "In Part 1 of this two-part training, we will address assessing the needs in your community and identify concrete, foundational supports necessary for effective multidisciplinary and cross-organization/system work. In Part 2, we will share information and evidence-based practices and skills that promote clear and effective communication, diffuse and de-escalate tension, build trust among individuals and disciplines, and result in better outcomes for survivors and communities. We will also learn the three pillars of system change and how teams can use protocol, training, and audits to successfully change the system."
Guides Building Community Capacity to Shape Outcomes of Health Equity Work From the Rural Health Information Hub, this section emphasizes the importance of building community capacity as a foundation for advancing health equity in rural areas. It outlines strategies for strengthening local leadership, fostering collaboration across sectors, and ensuring that community members—especially those most affected by health disparities—are meaningfully engaged in decision-making. The toolkit highlights how investing in relationships, trust, and shared power can lead to more sustainable, community-driven health solutions. It also provides examples and resources to help rural communities assess their readiness, mobilize assets, and build the infrastructure needed to support long-term equity-focused initiatives.
Guides Community Toolbox: Improving Organizational Management and Development This toolkit, part of a larger Community Tool Box from the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, offers a step-by-step guide to help organizations and coalitions plan and manage effective collaborations. It walks users through identifying shared concerns, engaging stakeholders, and forming exploratory task forces. It also provides guidance on creating a governing structure, managing collaborative tasks, and tracking goals and progress. Designed for community-based initiatives, the resource emphasizes inclusive planning, cross-sector engagement, and strategic development to strengthen organizational capacity and impact.
Examples Health Equity in Erie County The Erie County Office of Health Equity (ECOHE) conducted a series of focus groups in 2023 to better understand the health and well-being of marginalized and underserved populations across the county. The report highlights community perspectives on the social determinants of health, including economic stability, education, neighborhood conditions, and access to care. In the Best Practices and Lessons Learned section, ECOHE emphasizes the importance of culturally responsive facilitation, building trust through community partnerships, and ensuring language accessibility. These insights are intended to guide future engagement strategies and improve health equity initiatives across Erie County.
Templates Healthcare Coalition Recovery Plan Template The Health Care Coalition Recovery Plan Template, developed by ASPR TRACIE, is designed to help healthcare coalitions organize comprehensive recovery strategies following emergencies. Rather than simply restoring pre-disaster conditions, the template encourages coalitions to use recovery as an opportunity to enhance community resilience and improve service delivery—making systems more efficient, safe, and cost-effective. It also emphasizes that HCCs may play a more prominent and sustained role during recovery than in response, by convening stakeholders to assess public health impacts, prioritize restoration efforts, support patient care continuity, and navigate competing community needs. These insights underscore the importance of inclusive, forward-looking recovery planning.
Examples Leading Locally: A Community Power-Building Approach to Structural Change The Leading Locally Report, developed by the USC Dornsife Equity Research Institute and Lead Local, explores how community power-building drives structural change and improves health outcomes. Drawing from 16 place-based case studies across the US, including Santa Ana, CA, the report identifies best practices such as centering local leadership, investing in long-term organizing, and building cross-sector coalitions. Lessons learned emphasize the importance of aligning strategies with local histories and conditions, sustaining governing power beyond policy wins, and resisting top-down agendas that sideline grassroots voices. The report positions community power not just as a means to an end, but as a transformative outcome in itself.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Live Healthy Napa County Language Inclusion Listening Sessions Summary Report Napa County Health and Human Services Agency-Public Health has added a staff intern classification, strengthening their local Public Health workforce pipeline. Through their Live Healthy Napa County (LHNC) collaborative, they continue to convene partners in action teams to increase Respect and Social Inclusion within Napa County. One of the action teams, the LHNC Language Inclusion action team, has engaged community members to identify gaps in information and resource access. The team created a report of their findings as well as a document of information and resource access points for Spanish-speaking community members in Napa County.
Guides Local Place-Based Partnerships as a Pathway to Health Equity This report explores how community-based organizations across the U.S. are leveraging place-based, multi-sector partnerships to advance health equity. Rooted in housing, community development, and economic justice, these partnerships address the social determinants of health—such as neighborhood conditions and systemic inequities—to improve outcomes for children and families. The report highlights how strong backbone organizations, cross-sector collaboration, and community leadership are essential to building local capacity and aligning physical and human capital investments in historically underserved communities.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Marin County Public Health Collaboratives Marin County Health & Human Services has a long history of developing, nurturing, and evolving community collaboratives to address public health issues & achieve shared goals (Community Collaboratives: Healthy Marin Partnership, Marin HIV/AIDS Care Council, Marin Prevention Network, Marin Perinatal Service Providers Network, Marin Oral Health Steering Committee, Healthy Eating Active Living Collaborative, OD Free Marin, Community Resilience Teams, Community Health Worker Collaborative, Equity and Community Partnerships Committee, Marin County Suicide Prevention Collaborative, and Aging Action Initiative among others). Marin County seeks to provide compensation to community members whose participation may cause financial hardship, while also honoring their expertise and experience. Many collaboratives within HHS are focusing on increasing inclusive participation and amplifying the voices of community members from historically disenfranchised communities.
Articles Partnership for Healthy Communities When it comes to a healthy community, the University of Delaware’s Partnership for Healthy Communities (PHC) understands that place matters. Through the culmination of lived experiences and empirical research, there is a well-established understanding that there are healthy communities and less healthy communities and that this is a result of varying conditions in these communities, conditions referred to as the social determinants of health (SDoH). These varying conditions have been produced and reproduced through political systems, economic and social policies, and social norms, and resulted in persistent health inequities. PHC utilizes this knowledge and evidence to inform the collaborations and investments with communities that have the most to gain in the state of Delaware. Through a description of its four strategic partnerships, we outline how an equity, place-based approach guides our collaborative work to achieve health equity in our state.
Examples Resilience Hubs in Shasta County The month of July's Equity Learning Collaborative focused on resilience hubs in Shasta County. Learn from Shasta County’s Public Health Branch on how the resilience hub model can address equity in rural communities by providing essential resources and support, empowering local residents to drive solutions tailored to their unique needs.
Articles Study: Exploring How Health Equity is Addressed in Accountable Communities of/for Health (ACHs) This study by PHI’s Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) examines how Accountable Communities for Health (ACHs) in California and Washington are advancing health equity through multisector collaboration. It identifies five key strategies: providing equity education and training, including diverse community voices in decision-making, changing organizational practices, improving and developing services, and fostering a culture that centers equity. The report highlights the importance of dedicated backbone support, formalized equity commitments, and community partnerships as core features of the ACH model.
Type Title Description
Examples A Decade of Advocacy: The Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments A Decade of Advocacy is a case study of the Strategic Alliance, a network of 15 California-based organizations that came together to promote healthy food and activity environments. This document provides a roadmap for effective collaboration, and highlights the impact a group of organizations can have when working together to effect change. The document answers a series of critical questions, including: What does it take to reframe the debate around community health and well-being from a focus on the individual to one that includes environmental influences, corporate practices, and government responsibility? What strategies hold the greatest promise for improving the landscape of opportunities wherein people make decisions about what to eat and whether or not to be active on a daily basis? How can advocacy groups work together to most effectively achieve shared goals?
Examples Creating a Cross Sector Leadership Network This is a case study on the James Irvine Foundation’s New Leadership Network, which explores the development of a cross-sector leadership initiative in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The article focuses on the challenges faced by communities in Fresno—such as high poverty, poor air and water quality, and limited philanthropic infrastructure—and the need for collaborative leadership to address these systemic issues. Through interviews with over 50 local leaders, the initiative uncovered barriers like siloed sectors and the exclusion of emerging nonprofit leaders from influential networks. The guide shares lessons on building trust, fostering civic innovation, and creating inclusive leadership structures that span government, business, and nonprofit sectors. Recommendations are included to support communities in designing leadership networks that can drive equitable, region-wide change.
Articles Expanding opportunities for chronic disease prevention for Hispanics: the Better Together REACH program in Pennsylvania Hispanics in Lebanon and Reading, Pennsylvania, experience high levels of socioeconomic and health disparities in risk factors for chronic disease. For the past 4 years, our coalition has leveraged strong community collaborations to implement and evaluate culturally-tailored practice- and evidence-based activities aimed at increasing physical activity, healthy nutrition, and community-clinical linkages. This community case report summarizes the context where our overall program was implemented, including the priority population, target geographical area, socioeconomic and health disparities data, community-academic coalition, conceptual model, and details the progress of the Better Together initiative in the two communities impacted.
Articles Improving Cross- Sector Collaborations in Place-Based Population Health Projects This article provides a framework and recommendations on how to navigate cross-sector partnerships in complex population health projects.
Articles Mobilizing Cross- Sector Collaborations to Improve Population Health in U.S. Rural Communities: A Qualitative Stud This study provides four case studies of rural communities working to advance health equity through cross-sector partnerships and provides rural specific strategies. Rural Resource.
Trainings Promoting Health Equity by Uniting Sectors Around Shared Data This webinar discusses best practices for sharing data across sectors in order to advance health equity.
Examples Rebuilding Neighborhoods Initiative The Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) presents Rebuilding Neighborhoods, a strategic initiative launched in 2020 to address the intersecting challenges of housing affordability and gentrification in Greater Boston. The initiative brought together community organizers, small business owners, and leaders from the technology and innovation sectors to co-develop equitable, community-centered solutions. The project aimed to articulate a shared vision for equitable housing, generate actionable recommendations, and establish metrics for progress. The guide highlights the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations and reframes the crisis as an opportunity for cross-sector collaboration to build more inclusive, resilient communities. Recommendations are included to support equitable development that centers the voices and needs of historically marginalized residents.
Examples Solano County Leverages Internal Champions and External Experts to Advance Equity The Public Health Division of Solano County, California, is leveraging the commitment of internal equity champions and the work of national organizations to address historically limited capacity and limited resources to focus on the social determinants of health. Together, the Public Health Division and its national partners are building internal capacity to advance equity in a county with urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Examples Supporting Safe and Affordable Housing in Alameda County, CA The Alameda County Public Health Department serves as an example for how to work across sectors (e.g., housing) in order to advance population health.
Type Title Description
Guides Activities to Deepen Your Power-Building Analysis This guide assists public health professionals who wish to dive deeper into power dynamics and assess their own power-building activities. The guide contains activities that individuals and their whole organizations can complete in order to find their own abilities, create a partner landscape analysis, and complete a basic power mapping activity.
Examples Alameda County Advances Equitable Housing Policies This resource describes in detail how the Alameda County Public Health Department created housing policy change in order to advance health equity. The Alameda County Housing Workgroup is comprised of residents, community organizers and other stakeholders seeking to address housing inequities.
Guides Health Departments and Authentic Community Engagement by Center for Public Health Practice & Research This study of LHJ staff across the United States describes in detail their community engagement activities and provides recommendations for authentic community engagement.
Guides Ripple Effect Mapping Ripple Effect Mapping (REM) is a participatory focus group strategy meant to surface both anticipated and unanticipated outcomes, which can help to refocus complex initiatives.
Type Title Description
Webinars Addressing Systemic Racism: A Place-based Approach to Building Healthy Communities In this presentation, Renae Badruzzaman of the Building Healthy Places Network will describe place-based interventions that bring in community development as a key partner to address social determinants of health; explore moving further upstream to systemic, institutional, and structural change; and demonstrate how the public health workforce can adapt to address systemic racism and health inequities.
Guides Braiding and Blending Funds to Support Community Health Improvement: A Compendium of Resources and Examples This issue brief focuses specifically on two key mechanisms by which to bring funding streams together to support community health improvement – braiding and blending. Braiding refers to coordinating funding and financing from several sources to support a single initiative or portfolio of interventions (usually at the community level). Braiding keeps funding/financing streams in distinguishable strands, so each funder can track resources. On the other hand, blending refers to combining different streams into one pool, under a single set of reporting and other requirements, which makes streams indistinguishable from one another as they are combined to meet needs on the ground that are unexpected or unmet by other sources.
Articles Braiding and Layering Funding: Doing More With What We Have Braiding and layering funding demands the active engagement of leadership, a shared sense of purpose and vision, formalized communication and collaborative decision-making processes, well-established administrative procedures for cost allocation and reporting functions, and dedicated staff.
Templates Good Decision Making in Real Time: Practical Public Health Ethics for Local Health Officials Facing program cuts, public health departments may be tempted to enter into partnerships that create conflicts of interest that could compromise their core values. Learn how to avoid unethical situations in public health partnerships.
Articles How to Measure Community Engagement and Its Impact Measuring community engagement helps you track the quality of participatory activities, improve related processes, and show residents and stakeholders how their input influences decision-making. Below we present a set of community engagement metrics, or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)— select those that relate to your end goals and planning directions and set up an infrastructure for tracking (we have some tips on that below). These KPIs for community engagement can be used for a single project and on an organization-wide level.
Templates Participatory Budgeting Outreach Toolkit This toolkit aims to equip participatory budgeting implementers with a solid grounding in the basic principles of community outreach and a set of concrete tools to guide you.
Guides Research Report: Innovative Community Investment Strategies: The Current State Of Practice And A Vision For Greater Implementation In Southern This report describes how health departments are uniquely positioned to serve as experts and advisors in community health issues, and can provide key information to underline existing disparities. They are also positioned to coordinate partnerships between different sectors, play an advisory role in decision-making, and ensure investment efforts are aligned with Community Health Assessments and Community Health Needs Assessments, and that these efforts truly advance health equity. Public health departments have expertise on potential government sources of funding and have experience in community engagement.
Type Title Description
Frameworks Advancing California’s Workforce Equity Through Population-Specific Strategies This framework provides guidance for state agencies and workforce practitioners to support populations facing systemic barriers, offering actionable insights to promote equity-driven workforce strategies. It includes case studies from California.
Examples Colusa County Public Health: Building a Stronger Public Health Workforce Through Equitable Hiring Colusa County Public Health has recently expanded and diversified its workforce by adopting more equitable hiring practices, creating a more inclusive and productive workforce than before.
Guides Increasing Organizational Diversity- A Digital Recruitment and Retention Guide for Public Health Officials This digital guide will equip hiring officials and managers with practical strategies to foster organizational diversity. By implementing these strategies, organizations can ensure their workforce reflects their communities, enhancing organizational effectiveness and promoting equitable healthcare access racially and ethnically diverse populations.
Guides Making Alternative Credentials Work : A New Strategy for HR Professionals This guide includes how employers and employees view and value alternative credentials and explores workforce readiness alternatives.
Guides Tools to Support Effective Workforce Development Planning This document offers guidance to facilitate intentional planning efforts, including recruitment and retention resources. The Workforce Development Planning Tool Matrix outlines tools and resources to build a strong and qualified public health workforce equipped with equity-focused competencies and capabilities for core public health operations.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Tulare County Equitable Communications Resources Tulare County Public Health prioritizes equitable communications by integrating equity considerations into its messaging. This is achieved through various methods including translation services, plain language usage, following Cultural and Linguistically Appropriate Service (CLAS) Standards, and abiding by ADA compliance in materials produced by the Public Health Branch.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Tulare County Public Health Tulare County Public Health has invested in equity by creating a Training Officer position within the branch. This Training Officer has developed and delivered training relating to Cultural Humility to both staff and community partners. They have also created additional training materials on equity including pronouns in the workplace, CalAIM, and public health foundational services.
Type Title Description
Guides Advancing Health Equity in Health Department’s Public Health Practice Written by the Public Health Accreditation Board, this guide discusses different health equity initiatives in public health departments (including many across California), various resources and assistance available to departments wanting to further integrate equity, and overall recommendations for equity from the perspective of an accreditation body. Case studies, specific action items, and a large resource toolkit are all great real-world items that can be used to understand equity.
Templates BARHII Organizational Self-Assessment Toolkit BARHII presents an organizational self- assessment tool specifically aimed at helping local health jurisdictions identify their baseline capacity for health equity work. The assessment contains surveys for staff and external stakeholders of the organization, as well as focus and interview guides to help facilitate conversations. The package also consists of equity- focused review guides for pre-existing documents and human resources data systems in order to address health equity in past and future programs.
Guides Building an Equitable Workplace at Local Health Departments Toolkit The purpose of this toolkit is to support the ability of LHDs to to consider how policy, practice, and culture are advancing equity and inclusion within their department and among their staff, and to take action toward positive change. Possible actions include professional development and training, creating an action plan to support workplace equity, and applying an equity lens to workplace policies.
Articles CDC’s Guiding Principles to Promote an Equity-Centered Approach to Public Health Communication This article describes the impetus for, development of, and public health applications and implications of CDC’s Health Equity Guiding Principles to guide communication efforts.
Examples City of Madison Racial Equity and Social Justice Tool The City of Madison, WI presents a health impact assessment-style toolkit that digs deep into organizational policies and projects and finds opportunities to integrate health equity and racial justice. Focusing on who, what, when, where, why, and how, the tool allows you to separate out the populations that may benefit or be negatively impacted by a new project. The tool is presented in two forms depending on the capacity of the organization: a fast-tracked tool and a more comprehensive school.
Examples City of Ottawa Equity and Inclusion Lens Handbook 2018 Presented by the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, this guide takes an in-depth look at disproportionately affected populations in the community, analyzing the backgrounds of these populations and common inequities and barriers experienced by them. A vision statement is included for these groups, as well as descriptions of actions currently taking place to improve equitable outcomes for the populations.
Templates City of Saint Paul Racial Equity Assessment Toolki The City of St. Paul presents a racial equity focused assessment in order to determine the future impact of developing policies and programs on different populations of color. The assessment includes a PowerPoint slide training deck to guide users through the tool.
Examples Health Equity Action Plan Toolkit This Health Equity Action Plan Toolkit from Massachusetts includes an illustrative set of interventions, policies, and programs to help achieve a racially and ethnically equitable system in the state. Toolkit resources were identified through the landscape scan and interviews that providers, health care delivery system leaders, and other implementation stakeholders.
Templates Health Equity at Work: Skills Assessment of Public Health Staff This report provides sample survey templates (in the appendix) on how to assess equity knowledge of organizational staff. This resource has results from the survey and the sample survey itself to use as a template, including a script from focus groups.
Guides How to Evaluate an Organization's Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Developed by the University of California, Merced, this guide lists what potential employees want in a diverse organization. While not public health specific, organizations can use this guide to create a more inclusive work environment while also aligning to new standards of outward facing commitment to diversity.
Examples Human Impact Partners: An Equity Lens Tool for Health Departments The Human Impact Partners’ equity lens for health departments is a comprehensive guide on how to apply an equity lens to organizational programs and policies. The guide has many sections that allow organizations to review and reflect on the impacts of their programs and how different disproportionately affected populations can benefit from equitable approaches.
Frameworks Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) Equity Framework The Framework serves as a guide for designing or enhancing Public Health programs and administrative practices to achieve health equity, determine the best use of resources and investments, and ultimately achieve desired results.
2024 CA LHJ Examples Los Angeles County: 2025-2029 Community Health Equity Improvement Plan (CHEIP) In August 2024, the County of Los Angeles Public Health 2025-2029 Community Health Equity Improvement Plan (CHEIP) was released. This is a shared plan between community partners, stakeholders, and the department on priority public health issues to advance health equity and foster healthy, thriving communities. The key focus areas are Black/African American infant and maternal mortality, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and congenital syphilis, environmental justice, and violence prevention. The plan includes a set of strategies that also align with the department's Equity Framework's four core efforts (useful data, policy & systems change, partnerships, and organizational readiness). An update of year one will be released in September 2025.
Frameworks Multnomah County Equity and Empowerment Len Multnomah County, OR presents their racial justice focused Equity and Empowerment Lens. This tool focuses on the processes of planning, decision-making and resource allocation, and explains concept of the Four Ps: People, Place, Process, and Power. The tool also comes with a conceptual document that outlines the foundational assumptions of the tool, resources, a worksheet to complete during the toolkit process, and other helpful guides.
Examples National League of Cities: Repository of City Racial Equity Policies and Decisions The National League of Cities lists real- world examples of policy changes taken in order to advance equity. California is greatly highlighted in this list, with examples from Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Eureka, and San Gabriel, among others across the United States.
Guides Organizing for Racial Equity Within the Federal Government Multiple racial justice organizations, such as Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and Race Forward, share insights on organizing government agencies for racial justice. While focused on tips for federal agencies, many of the principles within this document are relevant to smaller agencies. One section to review is "Prepare for and learn from internal and external backlash," which can be an inevitable reaction that will occur when visually supporting antiracist policies.
Guides Protocol for Culturally Responsive Organizations The Coalition of Communities of Color shares their protocol for focusing on racial equity in your organization. This guide explains the impact of racial inequity both on an individual and on whole populations, change theory that can support shifts to racial justice initiatives, and concrete best practices that prioritize racial equity in the organization. Additionally, the guide includes a scoring matrix to measure the cultural responsiveness of your organization, recruitment policies and strategies, performance reviews, and many other helpful resources.
Articles Transparency: A central principle underpinning trustworthy guidelines This article discusses the importance of transparency when creating communications for the public. In order to earn community trust, guidelines and notices from your organization must be very clear, including information about where you acquire data sources and the cost/benefit analysis of decisions.
Guides Using a Health Equity Lens The CDC guides readers on how to consider and use an equity lens in inclusive communication and decision-making. The guide discusses the overall concept of an equity lens and lists step-by-step recommendations on how to integrate equity into already established programs and policies.
Type Title Description
Guides Applying social determinants of health indicator data for advancing health equity This technical guide walks local health departments and their community partners through collecting, analyzing, and using data indicators for local community health assessments, program/policy development, and health equity advocacy.
Data Platforms CalEnviroScreen CalEnviroScreen is a mapping tool that helps identify California communities that are most affected by many sources of pollution, where people are often especially vulnerable to pollution's effects. CalEnviroScreen ranks census tracts in California based on potential exposures to pollutants, adverse environmental conditions, socioeconomic factors and the prevalence of certain health conditions. Data used in the CalEnviroScreen model come from national and state sources.
Webinars Coffee Break Webinar: Sharing Data With Your Community A webinar overview of the newly launched tipsheet on sharing data with your community. The tipsheet outlines steps on best practices and examples on how to easily share data within your organization, work, and daily tasks.
Guides Do No Harm - Applying Equity Awareness in Data Visualization This guide with its respective checklists and toolkits focuses on the ways data analysts, researchers, and communicators fail to integrate equity in their work, how to correct common mistakes, and how to be more intentional in using a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) approach.
Articles GIS for Equity and Social Justice The purpose of this article is to outline how GIS is effective for ESJ practices. Geospatial topics covered include spatial data management, data sources, geospatial analysis, cartography, data visualization, and management dashboards. This resource is best suited for GIS Users, GIS Toolmakers, GIS Scientists, and ESJ practitioners from other disciplines.
Data Platforms Healthy Places Index (HPI) Evidence-based and peer-reviewed, the HPI supports efforts to prioritize equitable community investments, develop critical programs and policies across the state, and much more.
2024 CA LHJ Examples Los Angeles County: Data Initiatives In 2024, the County of Los Angeles Public Health released two cornerstone data initiatives: 1) Data from the 2023 Los Angeles County Health Survey (LACHS) includes information concerning the health of Los Angeles County residents. The adult and child surveys were conducted in 6 languages (English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese), and this recent version expanded gender identity reporting to include transgender and gender non-binary/non-conforming/queer individuals. (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/ha/hasurveyintro.htm)   2) The 2023 Community Health Profiles (CHP) provides geographically focused data, incorporates extensive community feedback, and provides data estimates on 100+ indicators known to impact the health and well-being of residents for 179 local geographies in Los Angeles County. Data are visualized using interactive maps and summary reports that ensure easy accessibility and usefulness for community partners and stakeholders.
Guides Principles for Using Public Health Data to Drive Equity (Page 23) This guide aims to incorporate data equity principles to each stage of the data life cycle, bringing an equity lens to each stage. These principles emerge from an environmental scan by the CDC Foundation that is further described in the document. The various stages of the data life cycle relate to different levels of the early, established, and strong spectrum.
Guides Sharing Data With Your Community A tipsheet that outlines steps for sharing data with your community.
Data Platforms Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map The EHD map is a collage of lived experiences across Washington. You, your families, and communities make up this map. This interactive map compares communities using census tracts to identify disparities. Using the EHD map can help us determine where more attention needs to be placed in order address and reduce the specific pollution, societal, and health harms affecting your life.  Census tracts are small, relatively permanent geographic subdivisions within counties.   Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve greater health.  Concerns and needs of Washington residents are represented by showing the combined of impacts to their health.
Type Title Description
Frameworks Approaches to Service and Resource Sharing An overview of the approaches to service and resource sharing in public health
Guides Powering Health Equity Action with Online Data Tools: 10 Design Principles This report offers 10 design principles for effective online data tools developed to advance health equity. This report explains how to apply these principles and include a local, state, or national real-world example of how the principle has been applied and executed.
Guides Principles for Using Public Health Data to Drive Equity - A guide to embedding equitable practices throughout the data life cycle (Page 23) The CDC Foundation uses this guide to help different organizations utilize equity principles throughout all uses of health data. The guide shares the five data equity principles, with advice on how to apply them to data work, and actionable steps to take to integrate equity at each step in the data analysis process.
Type Title Description
Guides Build Healthy Places Network: Guide to Racial Healing The Build Healthy Places Network offers a guide that centers on racial healing as a foundational practice for advancing health equity and community well-being. This resource explores how cross-sector partnerships—particularly those between community development and public health—can incorporate racial healing into their work to address structural racism. Drawing from real-world examples and practitioner insights, the guide outlines key principles, practices, and tools to support organizations in fostering trust, repairing harm, and building authentic relationships with communities. It includes actionable recommendations to help institutions move from intention to impact in their racial equity journeys.
Examples Lake County, IL Builds Internal and External Bridges The Lake County, Illinois, Health Department’s Health Equity Team facilitates relationships with community, agency, and business partners and builds internal and external awareness to improve the social conditions that determine health. Activities included taking the NACCHO Roots of Inequity Course, a bus reality tour for leadership, and piloting a social determinants of health assessment tool.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Marin County Public Health Community Resilience Teams Established within Public Health, during the pandemic, Marin County Public Health’s commitment to equitable response spurred the creation of Community Response Teams, which in the recovery phase have become Community Resilience Teams. These teams are now leading community engagement to address public health priorities, including access to services, community preparedness, and climate action. Notably, in 2023, Community Resilience Teams' Lead Agencies were onboarded as full voting members of Healthy Marin Partnership; a healthcare collaborative that has evolved into a community collaborative to achieve health equity. Community members now inform and guide public health strategies, including the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) and healthcare workforce development.
Webinars Shifting power: Understanding community building for health equity Recognizing that structural racism, sexism, and other structural marginalization as the root cause of health inequities is a major step forward in the field of health equity. However, it is not enough. Efforts to make changes on the structural level require shifts in power that center the views, experiences, and desires of the communities that experience harm. Understanding and collaboration across multiple sectors are needed to build community power to affect change. This webinar showcased work that uplifts the idea that building power in communities is key to changing structural drivers of health inequities and health equity. Audience members left with a renewed understanding of the role of power inequities and approaches to shifting power.
Frameworks The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership charts a pathway for strengthening and transforming local democracies. Leaders across multiple sectors such as CBOs, local governments, and philanthropic partners, can use this spectrum to assess and advance community engagement efforts.
Type Title Description
Examples Case Study: Cuyahoga County Uses Health Improvement Process to Lift Up Equity and Racial Inclusion https://healthequityguide.org/case-studies/cuyahoga-county-uses-health-improvement-process-to-lift-up-equity-and-racial-inclusion/
Examples Case Study: King County Transforms County Practice to Advance Equity The case study outlines how the city of King County created an interbranch team to focus on developing tools and policies to advance equity across all government departments.
Frameworks Operationalizing Equity Operationalizing Equity looks at how the Annie E. Casey Foundation is embedding equity principles in its grantmaking and administrative operations. The report includes tools for operationalizing equity work and examines how tying race equity to an organization's mission can help staff shift their priorities over time.
Examples Santa Clara Develops Infrastructure to Address Racial & Health Equity Example A case study examining how Santa Clara County Public Health Department in California is developing internal infrastructure to advance racial and health equity. Strategies include developing racial and health equity committees and workgroups, developing equity trainings for staff, and engaging community partners wherever possible. The outcomes and impacts of their work are also discussed.
Type Title Description
Articles DEI Steering Committee - Part 1: 3 Steps to Forming an Effective DEI Steering Committee This article is a 3-part series that includes information on forming a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee, sustaining DEI efforts, and futureproofing the work of the committee. Links to part 2 and 3 are in the article.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Napa County Health and Human Services Agency Public Health DEI Committee While Napa County Health and Human Services Agency-Public Health does not have a staff member with the specific title of ‘Equity Lead’ or ‘Equity Officer’, they have staff that function in this capacity in their Chronic Disease and Health Equity unit. The unit is dedicated to assessing countywide social determinants of health and has integrated equity as a priority across programs. As a result of the 2022 Organizational Assessment for Equity Infrastructure, they have started to convene a monthly DEI workgroup within Public Health to support equity work across the division. They were also able to hire and retain an additional Community Health Planner with CERI grant funding, increasing the capacity of the Chronic Disease and Health Equity unit.
2023 CA LHJ Examples Sacramento County: Public Health's Role in Continuing Momentum After Declaring Racism as a Public Health Crisis Following the declaration of Racism as a Public Health Crisis in November 2020, Sacramento County Public Health (SCPH) formed the Health and Racial Equity (HRE) Unit in April 2022 to build on the momentum to advance health and racial equity. The unit is fully staffed with five full time employees that work to integrate equity in SCPH infrastructure and programmatic areas. The unit was created to expand and build health and racial equity programs, policies, and practices throughout SCPH to eliminate, mitigate, and prevent existing and future health disparities and inequities that Black, Brown, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and other communities experience in Sacramento County. Having dedicated equity staff has positively impacted SCPH’s culture and capacity to advance health and racial equity.
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.
Guides Language Justice Toolkit This toolkit provides a comprehensive guide to promoting language equity and inclusion within organizations and communities. It includes practical strategies, best practices, and resources to support the implementation of language justice principles, ensuring that all individuals have equal access to communication and participation.
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.
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.
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.