Our Theory of Change
We transform the root causes that produce inequitable health outcomes.
By working in partnership to confront unjust power imbalances and dismantle systems of oppression, we target root causes by:
Aligning and building power with social justice movements to advance structural solutions
Strengthening democracy and governmental public health’s commitment to equity and justice
Deepening the health equity ecosystem and transforming our field to leverage its power
Growing a liberation culture that integrates our hearts and our heads in relationships and practice
We advance equity and justice by confronting the vastly inequitable distribution of power that defines this country.
All the work we do — our advocacy, organizing, research, capacity building, and bridging — aims to change who holds power and how power is held by shifting power to communities.
Power, which we understand through Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s definition as “the ability to achieve purpose..the strength required to bring about social, political, or economic changes,” comes in the form of resources; access to decision making across various arenas (i.e., legislative, administrative, judicial, electoral, corporate); alliances and networks we can leverage; and narratives that define what is valuable, possible, and true.
We believe that public health as a field needs to build and leverage our own power to benefit the people and communities who are experiencing the greatest harm.
We dismantle systems of oppression that uphold injustice and inequity.
Systemic oppression — i.e., discrimination embedded in the laws, policies, practices, norms, and culture within and across institutions — functions to maintain power and advantage for certain people, communities, and sectors at the expense of others. This occurs along some dimension of identity — for example, via White supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, and ableism.
At HIP, we counter the assumption that hierarchies, inequities, and power imbalances are given or natural. We lead explicitly — though not exclusively — with an analysis of structural racism as a root cause of harm in our society because of its enormous role in shaping and perpetuating inequity in the US in particular, and its pervasiveness across every single institution in the country.
We achieve sustainable, long-term change through social justice movements.
Social change happens through organized social movements: the intentional and sustained efforts of grassroots and advocacy movements to build power and deep democracy and transform material conditions. Social justice movements have the power to change the terms of political debate; our laws, policies, and governmental institutions; and our wider culture.
For us, it’s not about winning one policy change or an election. It’s about making a steadfast commitment to using our resources and expertise to support people who are most impacted by injustice and inequity to ultimately transform the conditions and trajectory of our society. Aligning with and supporting social movements is a core strategy necessary for public health to achieve our dream of health equity.
Public health needs to be deeply engaged in social justice movements and use its power to transform the systems that drive inequities.
We want the field of public health to see itself as part of larger social and racial justice movements to achieve health for all. This requires building bridges across our worlds, so that public health’s voice, evidence, and resources can be more strategically aligned with social movements that are leading the change we need to advance health equity. We also need visionary leadership and practitioners in public health who are willing to take strategic risks to advance inside/outside strategies and be accountable to the communities they serve.
Public health can leverage its power in the administrative arena to transform government, and help grow the governing power of communities.
Authentic democracy — where all people can collectively shape the policies and systems that impact our lives — is essential to health equity. We believe our government has a critical role and responsibility to advance equity, particularly because of the long and ongoing legacy of harms that oppressive government policies have caused. We need to repair and transform government institutions so they are inclusive, transparent, responsive, and accountable to communities facing inequities.
We also need to defend our institutions from right-wing attacks, so that government can stand firmly in its proper role: to defend the collective health of all against political and corporate pressure to concentrate wealth, power, and access to health and wellbeing in the hands of the few. Governmental public health can support this purpose by partnering with communities to design and implement structural shifts that advance community power-building agendas, and that transform the power structures of governance towards the interests and wellbeing of people and communities.
Transforming society requires transforming ourselves.
Analysis alone will not suffice to create a just society: we need to tap into the emotional and physical ways we react and self-regulate to cultivate deep trust and relationships. We call this integrating the head and heart.
We all hold histories and knowledge in our bodies, but denial, disconnection, and shaming of our inherent knowledge is one of the ways that White supremacy, patriarchy, and other intersecting power systems are perpetuated.
Dismantling oppressive systems requires tapping into that knowledge to inform how we show up in the work. We need to normalize creating space in our work and movements to build deeper relationships, and to feel and heal, in order to create the conditions for structural change, and to shape a new liberation culture that centers our humanity.
