Forces that Affect Health Equity: Conducting Community Health Assessments with a Social Justice Frame

Achieving health equity involves identifying, preventing, and reversing the effects of decisions, policies, investments, rules, and laws that have caused social and economic inequities that affect people’s abilities to live healthy lives. Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership (MAPP) is a community-driven strategic planning process that can help communities develop a culture of continuous collaborative health improvement that can guide them through addressing health inequities.

MAPP uses four different assessments to identify local health opportunities and potential challenges. To be comprehensive and illuminate population health status, community health assessments (CHAs) should include data on local demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, behavioral health, the environment (built and natural), morbidity and mortality, quality of life, local resources, community assets, and other determinants of health status.  Once the CHA is complete, the health department and its partners use the data to identify public health priorities and plan collaborative actions to improve the population’s health, commonly referred to as a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).  

In this interactive session, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) staff will provide an overview of MAPP and conducting MAPP with a health equity focus. Staff from the Cook County Department of Public Health will discuss their experience using the MAPP framework, and how they used a health equity lens to conduct one of their assessments, including results, challenges, and lessons learned. A community organizer will discuss his experience participating in the assessment and how public health can work with community groups to address health equity.