Quick Guide
Definition: Organizational commitment to equity (race/ethnicity, disability status, age, socioeconomic status, etc.) is seen and felt internally and externally; reinforced in culture and communication.
Why It Matters: In order to show confidence in the importance of equity in the community, an organization must show that equity is important within its own organization. The organization must lead by example and prioritize a commitment to integrating equity into all its sectors.
| Type | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Joint Organizational Commitment to Anti-Racism and Racial Equit | The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), along with other public health organizations, commit to anti-racism and racial equity by publishing a joint organizational commitment statement. This document includes the purpose of addressing anti-racism, the agreed upon foundations of the approach to anti-racism and racial equity, and the commitments with specific activities on how to move forward. |
| Examples | Health Equity Team 2021 Year in Review | This document is an end of the year equity celebration from Winnebago County, Wisconsin. The publicly posted review summarizes the health department’s mission statement, equity team accomplishments, equity internal infrastructure, community equity projects that the health department took part in, and goals for the next year. This is a great example that showcases commitment to equity and transparency. |
| Webinars | Organizational Capacity for Health Equity Action Initiative Webinar Series | This webinar series discusses integrating health equity in your public health department. While Webinar #1 is not relevant, others in the series include "Living health equity values within public health organizations" and "Governance and decision-making for health equity." Note: Please scroll down to the "Knowledge Sharing" section to see the list of webinars. |
| Guides | Mission Statement Development Guide | The Office of Health Equity TA Team presents a list of compiled resources for developing mission and vision statements. The guide also contains real-world examples of equity mission statements. |
| Guides | Building Organizational Capacity to Advance Health Equity | Created by the CDC, this is a list of actionable steps and recommendations that organizations can take to advance health equity internally. In addition to the recommendations, the guide also includes an example from Nashville and Davidson County, TN and a checklist that organizations can use to facilitate discussions about future organizational equity commitments. |
| Guides | A Rising Tide: Increasing Rural LHDs Capacity to Address the Social Determinants of Health | The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) presents a guide focused on the unique challenges and experiences of local health departments integrating equity into their organization. The guide shares results of an assessment completed with five rural health departments, which discusses foundational equity work in each department and digs deeply into motifs across the interviews. Recommendations are included to assist rural health departments address social determinants of health in their organizations. (Rural Resource) |
| Guides | Building a Movement, Transforming Institutions | Developed by PolicyLink, this guide defines health equity and gives actionable steps for how to further incorporate equity into your organization. The guide is broken down into sections covering topics such as “Building Leadership for Health Equity,” “Leveraging Institutional Capital for Health Equity Sustainability,” and “Framing and Communication for Health Equity.” The guide has recommended resources for further reading, which includes examples from California health departments and other public health institutions. |
| Guides | Choosing Health Equity:Understanding Decision Points in Policy and Practice | This is a useful discussion guide for public health advocates and decision-makers. A framework within the guide details four steps to implement equity and has discussion questions for each step. In addition to the questions, the guide explains the purpose of asking the questions and examples for further reading into the concepts behind questions. Organizations can benefit from expressing the purpose behind their equity work and verbalizing it to both internal and external partners. |
| Frameworks | Making Health Equity a Priority | As part of the University of Victoria’s Equity Lens in Public Health project, this framework outlines six key strategies that organizations can take to commit to health equity. For each strategy, the guide explains the reasoning behind choosing this specific step in simplified and explicit language. |
| Articles | Health Equity: Moving from the Margins to the Center | This article is written by Dr. Anthony Iton from the California Endowment. The article serves both as an explanation of foundational equity concepts and as a reflection on Dr. Iton’s time serving communities in California. Principles of equity, and the reasoning behind them, complement the real-life examples of Dr. Iton’s time developing power- building activities for the community of Alameda County. |
| Type | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Saint Paul- Ramsey County Public Health Health Equity Plan 2016-201 | This health equity plan for Saint Paul- Ramsey County, MN discusses concrete equity activities for staff, supervisors, and leadership. The plan also comprehensively discusses internal capacity for equity, resources available for the county to integrate equity, sustainability of equity efforts (including career pipelines), and external equity efforts. Additionally, the plan presents the county’s health equity lens with instructions for those interested in using it in their departments, and their approach to Health in All Policies. |
| Examples | National Association of Counties: County Declarations and Resources on Racis | The National Association of Counties lists real-world examples of declarations of racism as a public health crisis. This resource includes 12 examples from California counties that have made declarations, as well as declarations from many other states. |
| Examples | Hennepin County Health Equity Assessmen | The health department in Hennepin County, MN presents their adaptation of BARHII's equity assessment into a shorter (10-15 min) and more specific survey to be completed by individual staff members. The survey covers priority areas for staff capacity, strengths and challenges for the department, and overall capacity and desire to address the root causes of health inequity. Hennepin County also did a follow-up survey after one year. |
| Examples | Dane County Equity and Inclusion Plan | As a show of commitment to equity, Dane County, WI compiles an equity and inclusion plan that details their organizational commitments, leadership development, program innovation, and resource mobilization. The guide states what county employees want to do in the future, a timeline for implementation, specific steps they will take, and a cost/benefit analysis of the actions. |
| Templates | Health Equity & Social Justice in Public Health : A Dialogue Based Assessment Tool | This resource is a dialogue-based internal needs assessment about organizational health equity developed by the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI). The assessment focuses on four categories: Leadership, Workforce, Community, and Systems Change. Similar to CDPH’s Baseline Organizational Assessment for Equity Infrastructure, the assessment allows for conversations about health equity within the organization and gives staff a chance to express opinions on organizational commitment to equity. |
| Templates | Moving to Institutional Equity: A Tool to Address Racial Equity for Public Health Practitioners | This tool guides organizations on how to address racial equity in public health organizations. It includes a process to determine if your organization is ready to address racial equity that consists of a checklist of starting conversation points, such as, "are you doing this for the right reasons, or have you already had initial equity talks?” The tool also helps with decision points and feasibility of anti-racist policies. |
| Templates | Baseline Organizational Assessment for Equity Infrastructure | Developed by the CDPH Equity Technical Assistance Team, the Baseline Organizational Assessment for Equity Infrastructure is a tool that can be used by organizations to assess their level of internal equity infrastructure via twelve different competencies encompassed in four domains. In addition to the assessment, the link includes definitions of the competencies, frequently asked questions, and a results report from the debut of the assessment in May 2022. |
| Webinars | Increasing the success of health equity change initiatives: Organizational enablers and barriers | Presented by the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, this webinar guides organizations through finding their capacity to integrate a health equity lens internally. Notably, the webinar also discusses change management concepts as a way to facilitate this transition, such as proactive and reactive change and internal versus external change. |
| Articles | Public Health Workforce Perceptions About Organizational Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:Results From PH WINS 2021 | This article presents results from a national U.S. survey on public health workers’ perceived organizational commitment to DEI. The article concludes that a foundational commitment to equity must be seen in the organization before equity initiatives are started in order to have maximum impact on staff. Essentially, policies that are aimed at increasing equity capacity must feel as though they are being done purposefully and intentionally. |
| Type | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 | 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |