Strengthened community health ecosystems grounded in health equity and racial justice.

PI launched Strengthening Community Health Ecosystems Grounded in Health Equity and Racial Justice, a two-year effort to sustain policy and advocacy momentum while amplifying community-centered narratives that support equitable community health ecosystems. The initiative advances two core strategies: 1) policy and narrative analysis and development rooted in an affirmative, future-oriented vision; and 2) partnership and network development that aligns interconnected policy, narrative, and community-centered practices. Early activities include advancing our Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence (UCEE) work through a practitioner action guide; updating the Pillars of Wellbeing to support affirmative narratives in the current policy context; analyzing opportunities to strengthen an equitable public health ecosystem; and exploring ecosystem-building opportunities across priority regions, including Houston metro and Memphis, Tennessee. As part of this work, we produced the Moving Upstream podcast episode, “A Mercy in the Telling: Memory, Story, and Public Health Evidence,” which leverages UCEE to challenge narrow definitions of evidence and elevate memory, story, place, lived experience, and art as essential to advancing equity and justice in public health.

Funder: Kresge Foundation (The Moving Upstream podcast episode was co-funded by core support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.) 

Image by Nye' Lyn Tho.