Internal Capacity Committee
Public Health Organization

Spotlight

Facilitating Conversations about Health Inequities

In July, 2005, 30 people active in BARHII went through an all-day training on an organizational change strategy developed by Doak Bloss at the Ingham County (Michigan) Public Health Department. The broadly representative and participatory process, systematically examines the influence that race, class and gender have on population health. Doak Bloss was invited back to facilitate an all-day session in November where 60 additional staff from BARHII member health departments were introduced to the concepts.

Overall enthusiasm for the process, prompted several departments to select a core group of staff who were subsequently trained to use these specific facilitation methods. Through the work of the Internal Capacity Committee this corps of trained facilitators will implement a series of dialogs throughout the region within BARHII health departments.

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The primary focus of the committee is the development of trainings on health and social justice, and on building the capacity of local health departments to address health inequities. It is the charge of the committee to develop strategies to change the organization and culture of local health departments to better address health inequities and create healthy communities. These strategies include staff training, peer consultations, leadership development, increasing workforce diversity and promoting cultural competence.

Scope of work:
  • Research and staff training on best practices in combating health inequities, with a particular emphasis on the role of public health departments in fostering social justice, building community capacity, identifying the social determinants of health and countering interpersonal and institutional racism;
  • Staff forums and other events to highlight elements of community-based public health practice and work on health inequities;
  • Exchanges with public health departments beyond the Bay Area to promote organizational development strategies consistent with community-based approaches to public health;
  • Publication of tools, papers and articles to disseminate experiences and advocate for changes in state and national policies.