Reports
Mental Health Equity: Strategies for Community Engagement and Policy Change
This forum was designed, organized, and hosted by Health Equity Initiative to capture the perspectives of community leaders promoting mental health equity within their work. The forum focuses on (1) the leaders' experience in the mental health field and what kind of changes they have seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) promising strategies to reduce implicit and institutional bias in health and social systems, (3) policy solutions that may help advance mental health equity, (4) suggestions for community members from specific groups who are worried about their mental health or feel unwell, (5) a discussion on both key policies that have the potential of jeopardizing mental health equity, as well as policies which may help promote mental health equity, and (6) a call to action for organizations, policymakers, and leaders which would help to advance mental health equity. Suggested Citation: Schiavo, R., Davids, J., Roca-Sales, M., Tanta-Quidgeon, K.M., Ramesh, R., and Health Equity Initiative (2024). Mental Health Equity: Strategies for Community Engagement and Policy Change. A Community Leaders Forum: Report and Call to Action. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. Forum Discussion on January 19, 2024. Available at: (https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html)
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Racial Healing and Health Equity: Promising Policies and Community-Driven Interventions (Part 2)
This forum was designed, organized, and hosted by Health Equity Initiative to capture the perspectives of community leaders promoting racial healing within their health equity work. The forum focuses on (1) the leaders' experience with racial healing and how this applies to health equity issues, (2) personal and professional values the leaders bring to their work and everyday life, and implications for racial healing, (3) lessons learned from community-driven interventions and strategies that aim to build or restore community trust, (4) community perspectives on the impact of racism among specific groups, and opportunities for group-specific strategies and policies for racial healing, (5) a discussion on both key policies that have the potential of jeopardizing racial healing, as well as policies which may help promote racial healing, and (6) recommendations and sample steps toward racial healing and equity to be implemented at the policy level and within community settings. Citation: Schiavo, R., Ayala, J., Gordon, V., Morrow, D., Weiss, J., Hammond, P., and Health Equity Initiative (2023). Racial Healing and Health Equity: Promising Policies and Community-Driven Interventions (part 2). A Community Leaders Forum: Report and Call to Action. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative, Forum Discussion on Dec. 12, 2022. Available at: (https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html)
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Youth Engagement and Health Equity: Lessons Learned and Community-Driven Strategies
This forum was designed, organized, and hosted by Health Equity Initiative to capture the perspectives of youth advocacy organizations and community and youth leaders. The forum focuses on (1) the leaders' experience with youth engagement and how this applies to health equity issues, (2) how young community leaders can contribute to policy and intervention design for health equity, (3) examples of engagement strategies utilized within their respective organizations or youth groups and schools, (4) key health equity topics of concern amongst the youth and young leaders, (5) most promising practices/policies to promote youth engagement and contribute to health equity, and (6) ideas for future policy solutions that may encourage youth engagement and help advance health equity. Schiavo, R., Butler, A, Marcus, R., Patel, S., Ramesh, R., Hammond, P. and Health Equity Initiative (2023). Youth Engagement and Health Equity: Lessons Learned and Community-Driven Strategies. A Community Leaders Forum: Report and Call to Action. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. Forum Discussion on December 6, 2022. Available at: (https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html)
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Racial Healing and Health Equity: A Look at Promising Policies and Community-Driven Interventions
Designed, organized and hosted by Health Equity Initiative this forum aimed to capture local, national and global perspectives on racial healing and health equity in the words of community leaders and their organizations. The forum focused on (1) a reflection on the current realities of local communities and the leaders' own vision on how to promote racial healing, and how racial healing can contribute to health equity; (2) key community leverage points for long-lasting change, including reflections on the people who have the power to bring such change; (3) how storytelling can contribute to racial healing as well as policy and intervention design; (4) how to keep the spotlight on health and racial inequities in our communities, mass media, and policymaking settings; (5) most promising emerging practices or policies to promote racial healing; and (6) the role of community leaders and community-based organizations in shaping policies and racial healing. This report and call to action include a summary of the discussion from the Forum and highlights specific recommendations for policy change and community-driven interventions as grounded in the experience of the community leaders who participated. Citation: Schiavo, R., Morrow, D., Fleg, S., Gordon, V., Weiss, J.,and Health Equity Initiative (2022). Racial Healing and Health Equity: A Look at Promising Policies and Community-Driven Interventions. A Community Leaders Forum: Report and Call to Action. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative, Forum Discussion on Nov. 18, 2021. Available at: https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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Training for Health Equity: Lessons from Health Equity Initiative's ExperienceThis report summarizes key findings and recommendations from evaluation surveys completed by participants in Health Equity Initiative's capacity building and training programs from 2011 to early 2020. The findings and recommendations in this report provide an useful implementation framework not only for Health Equity Initiative's future capacity building programs but also for other organizations interested in integrating health equity training in their future goals and endeavors.
Citation: Nguyen, L., Basu Roy, U., Faroul, L., and Schiavo, R. (2022). Training for Health Equity: Lessons from Health Equity Initiative's Experience. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative, February 2022. Available at: https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Girls: Implications for Health Equity
Designed, organized and hosted by Health Equity Initiative, this Community Leader Forum aimed to capture local, national and global perspectives in the words of community leaders and their organizations. The Forum focused on (1) how the pandemic has impacted women and girls in a variety of ways (e.g., health, employment, mental health, etc.); (2) how this is likely to further exacerbate existing health and gender inequities, including implications for health equity; and (3) ideas for policy solutions and other interventions that may address emerging and pre-existing needs of women and girls, with special emphasis on women and populations that experience marginalization or other types of disadvantage and vulnerability. This report and call to action includes a summary of the discussion from the Forum and highlights specific recommendations for policy change and community-driven interventions as grounded in the experience of the community leaders who participated.
Citation: Schiavo, R., Carson, E., Gomez, A., Tauro, A., Ramesh, R. and Health Equity Initiative (2021). The Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Girls: Implications for Health Equity. A Community Leaders Forum: Report and Call to Action. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. October 2021. Available at: https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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COVID-19: Emerging Community Needs and Policy Solutions
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact among Black, Brown and Indigenous communities as well as other communities of color and many marginalized and underserved groups both in the Unites States and globally, Health Equity Initiative, designed, organized and hosted a Community Leaders Forum to highlight the experience and insights of community leaders from across the United States. The Forum focused on (a) how the coronavirus underscores many of the challenges and health and social inequities we already knew existed, (b) emerging community needs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and (c) community-driven ideas for policy solutions that may address emerging needs and priorities that contribute to COVID-19 inequities. This report and call to action includes the discussion from the Forum and features recommendations for policy solutions that are grounded in the experience of the community leaders who participated, and focus on a variety of topics including addressing food insecurity, mobilizing resources for hospitals and clinical practices in underserved neighborhoods, improving the quality and affordability of healthcare services, mitigating the digital divide in "redlined" neighborhoods, prioritizing funding to address loneliness and the mental health impact of the pandemic among marginalized communities, and increasing support for the work of local CBOs, among others. Citation: Schiavo, R., Lee, L. T., Spencer, P., Washington, T., Roque-Lewis, A., Vu, A., and Health Equity Initiative. (2020). COVID-19: Emerging Community Needs & Policy Solutions. A Community Leaders Forum: Report and Call to Action. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. July 2020. Available at: https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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2018 Summit Report and Recommendations
This report summarizes highlights and recommendations that emerged from Health Equity Initiative's 2018 Summit Innovation Think Tanks as well as conclusions, next steps, and promising strategies for multisectoral collaborations and interventions to overcome social discrimination and other key barriers to health equity across issues of racism, poverty, and gender/LGBTQIA+ bias. Citation: Schiavo, R., Oledibe, N, Faroul, L. and Health Equity Initiative. (2018). Engaging New Allies in the Health Equity Movement: Highlights and Recommendations from the 2018 Summit Innovation Think Tanks. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. June 2018. Available at: https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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Building Community-Campus Partnerships to Prevent Infant Mortality: Lessons Learned from Building Capacity in Four US Cities
Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, this report focuses on strategies and lessons learned from a capacity-building and participatory planning pilot program designed and implemented in 4 US cities by Health Equity Initiative in collaboration with the U.S. DHHS Office of Minority Health Resource Center (OMHRC) to encourage multisectoral partnerships, and engage local leaders and organizations in participatory planning and infant mortality prevention. The project’s structured approach to capacity building and participatory planning can be reproduced in other settings, both within the United States and globally, and has implications for leaders and organizations that work on collaborative efforts to address health inequities. Citation: Schiavo, R., Estrada-Portales, I., Hoeppner, E., Ormaza, D., and Ramesh, R. (2016) Building Community-Campus Partnerships to Prevent Infant Mortality: Lessons Learned from Building Capacity in Four US Cities, Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice: Vol. 9 : Iss. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol9/iss3/5 Download this paper here: Building Community-Campus Partnerships to Prevent Infant Mortality: Lessons Learned from Building Capacity in Four US Cities |
HEI Partnership Summit 2016 Report
The report summarizes the proceedings and outcomes of Health Equity Initiative's 2016 Summit, Implementing Systems-Level Change for Health Equity: A Partnership Summit, this past February! It includes summaries for each session and workshop, conclusions and recommendations, and more. We sincerely hope it will support and foster the continuing conversations and activities that will follow in many organization and communities. For additional information on the Summit, please click here. Citation: Schiavo, R., Padgaonkar, D., Cooney, L., Reyes, C. C. and Health Equity Initiative. (2016). Implementing Systems-Level Change for Health Equity: A Partnership Summit. Summit Report and Proceedings. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. May 2016. Available at: https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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Raising the Influence of Community Voices on Health Equity: The Health Equity Exchange Experience
This PowerPoint presentation/report summarizes key themes and perspectives on “health equity” that emerged from the Health Equity Exchange, an online forum and outreach program (2011-2013) by Health Equity Initiative. The Exchange provided a space where people throughout the U.S. could speak to two main issues: 1) What health equity meant to them, their families, peers and community, and 2) What top priorities should be addressed in their community to make progress towards health equity. Designed to provide a proof-of-concept on the need for community engagement and ownership on health equity issues, the Exchange provided insights on unique perspectives that may not be available otherwise; suggested that some people may still not know what health equity is; and linked “health equity”—and related definitions—to five broad categories that reflect key influencing factors identified by Exchange participants. Overall, the report supports community and multi-stakeholder engagement and ownership of health equity solutions, as well as the importance of making sure that community values and priorities are understood, documented and always inform health equity interventions. This report was presented at the 2012 NIH Summit on the Science to Eliminate Health Disparities, the 2016 Health Equity Initiative Partnership Summit, and the 2017 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting. Citation: Schiavo, R. , Padgaonkar, D., Hoeppner, E., Boahemaa, O., Brandy, W., Ramesh, R. and Health Equity Initiative (2012-2017). Raising the Influence of Community Voices on Health Equity: The Health Equity Exchange Experience. Online Resource/Report. New York, NY: Health Equity Initiative. Available at https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/reports.html
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