The Organizational Self-Assessment (Self-Assessment) for Addressing Health Inequities Toolkit (Toolkit) provides public health leaders with tools and guidelines that help identify the skills, organizational practices and infrastructure needed to address health equity and provide insights into steps LHDs can take to ensure their organization can have an impact on this growing problem.

The Self-Assessment is intended to serve a LHD in the following ways:

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• Serve as the baseline measure of capacity, skills and areas for improvement to support health equity-focused activities;

• Inventory the presence of a set of research-based organizational and individual traits that support the ability to perform effective health equity-focused work;

• Provide information to guide strategic planning processes and/or the process of developing and implementing strategies that improve capacities;

• Serve as an ongoing tool to assess progress towards identified goals developed though the assessment process.

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The Toolkit includes the following instruments:

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1. Staff Survey — An online survey tool designed for LHD staff at all levels of the agency to complete. This tool addresses most of the elements included in the Matrix.

2. Collaborating Partner Survey — An online survey tool that provides an opportunity for other agencies, organizations and groups that work with the LHD to share feedback and insights regarding health equity work.

3. Staff Focus Groups — Facilitated group discussions that are designed for in-depth exploration of elements of the matrix and to gain further information on specific issues informed by the staff survey.

4. Management Staff Interviews — Individual interviews with members of a LHD’s senior management/leadership team to allow a LHD to further develop an in-depth sense of its organizational strengths and areas for improvement related to addressing health inequities.

5. Internal Document Review Guidelines and Human Resources Data System Worksheet — Structure questions that help guide an LHD in identifying priority areas of inquiry of existing documents and materials to review and a worksheet that can be used to summarize important data gathered during this component of the assessment. This sheet succinctly illustrates how responsive the HR system is to the diverse needs of the population served by the LHD.

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In addition to the instruments themselves, the Toolkit contains an implementation guide with information, tools, resources, and bibliography to help LHDs:

• Assess whether they are ready to conduct the Self-Assessment;

• Prepare for the self-assessment;

• Complete the necessary steps for implementing the self-assessment; and

• Engage with the results of the self-assessment in an action-oriented way

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We encourage widespread use of the Toolkit and ask that you please credit BARHII if you use or present on the Toolkit.

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Copies of the online survey tools will soon be available. For more information, please contact MNewcomb@BARHII.org.

We appreciate feedback. If you implement the Self-Assessment, please contact us to let us know how it went.

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