Building Capacity of Faith and Public Health Leaders: Aligning Perspectives to Eliminate Health Inequities

Inequities in health status are rooted in complex and difficult social problems such as poverty, racism, unemployment, and poor educational opportunities. Public health and faith communities have overlapping goals in addressing health disparities created by these inequities. Much of the activity in faith and public health partnerships focuses on individual programs such as mass vaccinations, screening and health education. By strengthening sustainable relationships between two non-traditional partners we can achieve greater impact in addressing health disparities. Drawing on the principles and learnings from the MidAmerica Regional Public Health Leadership Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health and the Institute for Public Health and Faith Collaborations at the Interfaith Health Program at Emory University, The MidAmerica Public Health Training Center and The Center for Faith and Community Health Transformation developed the Faith and Public Health Leadership Institute. This training series explores the theme from the lens of the faith community and the lens of public health, and then brings the two lenses into focus in “shared seeing.” The main objective of the Institute is to spark imagination for faith and health collaborations that go beyond programs to more organic initiatives. Practitioners will gain a deeper knowledge and practice of faith, public health, and the two fields in conversation with each other. Lessons learned that will be discussed focus on topics such as recruitment, curriculum development, and evaluation.