Online Program

Oral

All communities deserve equal opportunities to be healthy, but good health isn’t distributed evenly across our society. Low-income communities, particularly communities of color, are more likely to lack access to healthy, affordable foods, smoke-free environments, and safe places to play and be active. These health inequities are an injustice – and preventable. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released A Practitioner's Guide for Advancing Health Equity, a tool to help public health practitioners and others advance health equity through community prevention strategies. Developed with input and feedback from practitioners and researchers from across the United States (including CDC experts and representatives from local health departments, community-based organizations and national organizations), and based on the experiences of the CDC’s awardees and other equity-oriented prevention efforts, this resource is designed to help practitioners develop, enhance, and apply the critical skills necessary for advancing health equity at the local level. While health equity can be addressed at multiple levels, the guide focuses on policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that can improve the places where people live, learn, work, and play. This panel will feature national experts from CDC, public health practitioners from Prevention Institute, and local community members leading innovative health equity-oriented initiatives on the ground. Panelists will discuss the core elements of a health equity approach; identify opportunities to integrate equity into tobacco-free living, healthy food and beverage, and active living strategies; offer tips and best practices to build organization capacity, develop partnerships, and foster meaningful community engagement; and share case studies of successful efforts by local health departments and coalitions tackling health inequities at the community level.

Session Objectives: Describe strategies, based in evidence and honed by practice, that are designed to reduce health inequities and create healthy communities for all. Articulate concrete strategies to build organizational capacity, develop partnerships, and foster meaningful community engagement in designing and evaluating equity-oriented approaches. Identify potential barriers and unintended consequences that can hinder chronic disease prevention efforts. Describe successful equity-oriented approaches to improving public health and reducing inequities.