Initiatives

The Ingham County (MI) Health Department, the Harris County (TX) Health Department, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Louisville (KY) Department of Public Health and Wellness, and the Amherst Health Department have all received three-year grants. Each year, they will contribute a portion of their departmental grants to NACCHO for technical assistance and to coordinate similar efforts in California.

Previously: In Michigan, the Ingham County Health Department subcontracted with NACCHO under a two-year grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to produce an anthology entitled Tackling Health Inequities through Public Health Practice: A Handbook for Action. The initiative strives to incorporate social justice concepts, values, methods, and practices into the everyday operations of public health systems will result in social change that will lead to greater health equity. The department will engage in collaborative learning with local health departments (LHDs), their constituencies, and opinion makers on the significance of health inequities and how to address them.

The California Endowment Health Equity Initiative With NACCHO's assistance, 115 LHDs will conduct town-hall meetings and other events to discuss action steps to tackle health inequity. Participants will include community representatives, agency heads, elected public officials, and others. California Newsreel, The Praxis Project, and NACCHO devised a tool kit for these meetings (see www.unnaturalcauses.org). The kick-off event at NACCHO's Annual Meeting on July 11, 2007, was a screening of the first hour of this documentary.