Every April, we acknowledge National Public Health Week (NPHW), elevating the successes, accomplishments, and vital role of public health. This year’s NPHW theme — Protecting, Connecting, and Thriving: We Are All Public Health — deeply resonated with me. Many of the recent conferences I have attended have focused on the power of connection to transform our health systems and institutions to center equity, people, and community — a practice that is at the core of ChangeLab Solutions’ mission. I am enlivened by the innovative ideas, relationships, and energy sparked when people working at every level of public health come together to create an actionable vision for change.
At ChangeLab Solutions, we focus on transformative approaches to public health policies — from using legal and policy levers that hold the greatest potential for equitable systems change to reforming governance systems to better engage and listen to community voices. We are inspired to deepen our shared work because we are all public health.
In the coming months, you will see the results of our partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With their support, we have been working on tools, resources, and trainings that support the public health workforce in understanding and addressing some of our most challenging issues. These evidence-based, community-centered tools provide options to actualize positive change. Please stay tuned for these upcoming resources.
I invite you to read on to learn about our current endeavors. Thank you for your support; I look forward to our continued work together to advance health for all.
Centering Law in Public Health Education
A new article in Health Affairs Forefront, co-authored by ChangeLab Solutions senior attorney Jami Crespo, highlights the pressing need for better integration of law in public health education and workforce training. Building on new research surveying curricular practices in schools and programs of public health, the article offers steps to help make public health law a core requirement. Mainstreaming law in public health education will provide students and practitioners with critical tools to help address the drivers of health inequities.
Changing Outdated HIV Laws & Policies
As part of the movement to end the HIV epidemic and associated criminalization and stigma, our team at ChangeLab Solutions has been helping to create tools and resources as well as facilitate state-level training programs to assist states with reforming outdated HIV criminalization laws and policies. Explore our resources, and stay tuned for our upcoming webinar in May.
Legal Tools for Effective Exercise of Public Health Authority
In our latest legislative update for the Act for Public Health partnership, we highlight how laws and policies can establish decision-making processes and accountability measures that connect closely to outcomes rooted in the public’s health, actualizing the value that all people deserve a fair opportunity to live their healthiest life.
Health Equity Web Tool
We recently launched Strategies for Equitable Policymaking, a companion to our foundational guide A Blueprint for Changemakers, as well an interactive web tool that provides strategies to address the drivers of health inequity. These new resources build on our approaches for local, cross-sector policy change from A Blueprint for Changemakers, detailing strategies like equitable enforcement, community engagement best practices, preemption countermeasures, and aligning health equity policies across local government.
Commitments to Support Public Health
The Common Health Coalition has announced a bold new set of commitments that will better equip health care organizations across the United States to prepare for future health emergencies. Building on learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, these commitments offer a path to deepen partnerships between health care organizations and public health systems. ChangeLab Solutions supports this work by serving as host of the coalition.
4/25/2024