Washington, DC, July 24, 2024 – The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the voice of the country’s over 3,300 local health departments, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is proud to relaunch its signature learning course series, Roots of Health Inequity. Roots of Health Inequity has long been a valuable tool for public health professionals, clinicians, community advocates, and others to learn more about, and act upon, the health inequities their communities experience. The course series has been updated with new content and features to facilitate a collaborative learning experience.
First launched in 2011, the goal of the Roots of Health Inequity is to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of public health practitioners to act directly on the root causes of inequity in the distribution of disease, illness, and death. The course achieves this by employing a critical instructional framework that encourages the learner to understand how narratives, structures of power, and policies shape the landscape of health outcomes throughout the United States. Learners critically engage with these concepts, questioning what the root causes of these factors are, how and why they are upheld, and what we can do, as a collective, to change the landscape.
Roots links theory, knowledge, and practice to support users in their exploration of:
- how unaccountable social, economic, and political structures of power produce the preconditions for health or illness;
- concepts and strategies for how public health practitioners and their partners can transform public health practice; and
- a philosophical and theoretical framework, based on the principles and values of social justice
Over the past three years, Roots has been updated to reflect the ever-changing, pervasive, and intersecting convergence of political, social, and economic struggles exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The original course now expands to 10 courses, exploring a wide array of topics. Each course is designed to be taken in a series or standalone and uses written content, videos, worksheets, and interactive tools to support various learning styles. Users can also listen to engaging interviews with public health professionals, activists, and other community advocates addressing the root causes of health inequities in the communities they serve.
Roots of Health Inequity also fosters interaction and collaboration to facilitate the learning process. For those seeking to learn in a group setting, they can form online learning groups on the site, which allow users to track progress, assign content, and capture their cohorts’ comments and responses to their assignments. To encourage dialogue and reflection, users may also access the updated Facilitator’s Guide, which offers frameworks, activities, discussions, and journaling exercises for reflection-based learning to understand the content.
“We’re thrilled to unveil the all-new Roots of Health Inequity,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, NACCHO CEO. “We’re confident that the new version will be an even more valuable resource for public health professionals working to advance health equity and improve unjust health outcomes. By incorporating the latest evidence, a wider range of expert voices, and a dynamic online platform, we’re equipping participants with the knowledge and tools they need to truly address the root causes of health inequities.”
Roots of Health Inequity is available for free at rootsofhealthinequity.org. For more information about Roots, including links to register for Roots Office Hours, join the Virtual Community, sign up for the mailing list, and access the promotional toolkit, please visit linktr.ee/nacchoroots. For questions, please email [email protected].
Funding for the revision of this course was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under award 6 NU38OT000306-04-02 cooperative agreement OT18-1802, Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services Through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation’s Health, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under awards 6 UD3OA22892-09-06 and 5 UD3OA22890-12-00, National Organizations for State and Local Officials (NOSLO).
The funders of this resource did not determine the content of this course series, which does not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC or HRSA.
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About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the over 3,300 local governmental health departments across the country. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information, visit www.naccho.org.