Where do you want to start?
Each resource is free and self-paced. They’re designed to work together on your equity journey, but you can use them at any point. Not sure where to begin? Use the guides below.
The questions running through everything:
Who benefits? Who decides? Who’s missing? Who’s harmed?
Start with where you are on your journey
Step 1 – Shifting Mindsets
Foundations of Community Engagement
This toolkit defines core concepts related to health equity, mental models, power mapping, and youth development and applies those learnings to community engagement with the goal of broadening public health practitioners’ way of thinking to integrate approaches that intentionally include community voice and build community power.
Step 2 – Checking Internal Readiness
Temperature Check for Health Departments
Examining internal equity efforts – and explicitly naming what is advancing or impeding the intended goals – is essential when approaching community engagement with an equity lens. The Temperature Check (Temp Check) supports this process by providing a series of questions and discussion guides to spark conversation, facilitate reflection, articulate gaps, and explore next steps for improvement efforts. By using this tool, health departments can better align their internal policies, practices, and systems with their equity goals, leading to more authentic community engaged practice.
Step 3 – Building Community Power
The POWER Playbook
This playbook is a collection of insights, strategies, and real-world examples drawn from HRiA’s experiences supporting communities to use their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) resources to improve their cities and towns. The playbook contains a series of POWER Plays—actions to increase resident decision-making power in municipal funding activities.
Step 4 – Sustaining Equity Work
There are several additional resources to support deeper and more sustained work from practitioners to build community power and center community voice.
Example starting paths based on who you are:
I work at a health department
Begin with the Temperature Check to asses your internal landscape, then use Foundations of Community Engagement to build staff capacity before engaging communities.
I work at a community organization
The POWER Playbook is designed for you to shift decision-making power. Foundations of Community Engagement will help you name the dynamics you’re already navigating.
I’m a research or policy practitioner
The Legal Epidemiology guide shows how to center community throughout the research process, not only when disseminating. Pair with Foundations of Community Engagement for grounding knowledge.
