Teaching the social determinants of health: An environmental justice curriculum

Communities of color and low income have been burdened with external threats that have disproportionately affected their health and welfare. This is not only unjust and inequitable, but it deprives people of their basic economic, social, and cultural rights. The Population Health Project (PHP) is an education and advocacy organization committed to teaching youth and adults about the links between social justice and health inequities. PHP is currently developing, teaching, and disseminating a secondary school population health curriculum that addresses how political, economic, and social inequities interact to affect the health of our society (social determinants of health). The curriculum framework addresses the underlying structural causes influencing individual health behavior, population health indicators, health disparities, policies and practices that cause health inequalities, and actions that can be taken to improve population health (critical health literacy).

This presentation describes the Environmental Justice (EJ) curricular module originally developed and taught by PHP in partnership with Seattle Girls School (SGS), located in a community that has significant EJ issues. Eight classes were developed, including visiting a Superfund Site, contaminant exposure pathway analysis, examination of 3 neighborhoods with different EJ issues, exploring the relationship between the built environment and health, discussion on the health effects of not having voice in decision-making, stakeholder debate at a Superfund cleanup meeting, and a social change dialogue. In addition to presenting PHP's teaching methodology, PHP will describe student's reactions, as well as challenges and successes of teaching this curriculum at other teaching venues in Seattle.