Building Public Health Capacity to Advance Equity is an environmental scan funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to explore governmental public health’s role in advancing health equity with racial equity as a major priority and community engagement as a central strategy. The project team consisted of ten partner organizations collaborating to examine the federal landscape and the capacity of local, state, and Tribal health agencies to play a role in promoting equity. Through literature reviews, in-depth interviews and focus groups with health officials, public health experts, and community leaders across the country, we have identified a variety of opportunities for governmental public health to advance equity. Public health can support and lead change efforts by partnering across and within departments, creating and leveraging opportunities for community input, buy-in, and collaboration, and aligning the work of public health with broader social movements and other community efforts to build transformational partnerships that restructure power dynamics and build political will for racial and health equity. (abbreviated author introduction)
#P4HEwebinarJune2023