Community engagement and mobilization: Advancing health equity

The New Mexico Health Equity Partnership is a collective impact strategy designed to improve the capacity of communities to address social, economic and environmental conditions that negatively affect health using three elements: 1) Place Matters Initiative; 2) Health Impact Assessments (HIA); and 3) Health Councils and Community. In this presentation, NM community members will illustrate how these elements have been used to strengthen local efforts to advance health equity. By sharing their personal stories, Bernalillo County Place Matters (BCPM) members will illustrate how race and “place” shapes their experiences, choices and health. Furthermore, they will show how a focus on “place” provides an opportunity to engage residents in community change efforts by making connections between land use, policy planning and community health. BCPM members will explain how they have used HIAs to determine the potential health effects of land use plans and influence decision making processes, thus strengthening community voice. Additionally, Roswell HIA participants will describe how community and health council members in Southeastern NM are collaborating and using an HIA to ensure health is considered in land use planning.