Blueprint for Changemakers

Everyone deserves good jobs and schools, healthy food, affordable housing, and quality health care. But discriminatory laws and policies make it harder for some people to access health-promoting opportunities and live healthy lives. Changing unfair laws and policies is the most effective method for undoing those harms and advancing health equity across America.

That’s why we published A Blueprint for Changemakers: Achieving Health Equity Through Law & Policy in 2019, presenting legal strategies and best practices to help policymakers and communities address five fundamental drivers of health inequity and leverage the efficacy of local policy solutions, incorporate health in all policies, and engage underserved communities in the policy process.

Explore more resources for equitable policymaking

• Strategies for Equitable Policymaking: Applying Law & Policy Frameworks to Improve Health 
  Four years after publication of our foundational guide A Blueprint for Changemakers, we launched a companion resource, Strategies for Equitable Policymaking. This concise 2023 resource expands on the equitable policymaking frameworks and concepts presented in the Blueprint — the drivers of health inequity, community engagement, equitable enforcement, preemption, and more — and grounds those concepts in real-world examples. Download this resource and take steps toward improving health equity in your community.
• Undoing the Drivers of Health Inequity (web tool)
  To complement Strategies for Equitable Policymaking, we’ve created a web tool to provide changemakers with legal and policy strategies to change inequitable distribution of resources and power. Our web tool connects each of five fundamental drivers of health inequity to practical policy strategies, key resources, and real-world examples of how communities across the country have used equitable policymaking to confront the drivers of health inequity and create systems change. We invite you to explore this tool to discover how you can transform policies and systems to promote health for everyone.