Policy & Organizing
Leveraging public health research, organizing, and advocacy to create structural change
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We leverage public health research, organizing, and advocacy to increase the power of those impacted by structural inequities to collectively influence decisions affecting our lives.
Public health is the radical concept that everyone has a fundamental right to the conditions and opportunities required to thrive. But public health research, narratives, practice and organizations have largely failed to explicitly recognize and take action on unjust power imbalances as a root cause of health inequities. We envision a public health movement that shapes its work around shifting, sharing, and building the power of those most impacted by injustice in order to change policies — economic, social, and environmental — that determine our health.
We are making good on this vision by:
- American University
- Boston University School of Public Health
- Capella University
- Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
- City University of New York
- Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
- Colorado School of Public Health
- Drexel University
- Emory University Rollins School of Public Health
- George Washington University
- Georgia State University
- Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Howard University
- Iowa State University
- Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Northeastern University
- Northwestern University
- Oregon Health and Science University and Portland State University School of Public Health
- Rutgers University
- San Diego State University School of Public Health
- San Francisco State University
- San Jose State University
- Seattle University
- Tufts University
- Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
- University of California Berkeley School of Public Health
- University of California Davis
- University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health
- University of Central Arkansas
- University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health
- University of Iowa College of Public Health
- University of Maryland School of Public Health
- University of Michigan School of Public Health
- Wayne State University
- University of Minnesota School of Public Health
- University of Minnesota Medical School
- University of Oxford
- University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
- University of South Florida College of Public Health
- University of Southern California
- University of Victoria
- University of Washington School of Public Health
- University of Wisconsin Madison
- University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health
We are making good on this vision by:
- Building strong, trusting, and accountable relationships with community power-building organizations and networks.
- Working together to dismantle systems of oppression, change unjust policies and narratives, and build life-affirming alternatives.
- Mobilizing public health organizations and practitioners to align with communities impacted by injustice to support their power, narratives and policy priorities.
We focus on the following key issue areas
We focus on the following key issue areas
Building a Container & Foundation for Health Equity Series
This highly engaging and interactive series teaches foundational health equity and racial justice frameworks and analysis, and supports teams in building the trust and container necessary to do the hard work of addressing racism and other systems of oppression in our relationships, work, and institutions. The series is built around a set of sequential stages, including foundational workshops, Community of Practice sessions, and technical assistance hours.
Customized Consulting and Training
Wherever your organization is on your health equity journey, we offer customized and heart-centered consulting and training to foster systems change, and advance targeted strategies on a wide range of topics, including narrative strategy, power mapping, and equity impact assessment. Trainings can be virtual (minimum 3 hours; up to 30 participants) or in-person (minimum half day and up to 3 consecutive days; participant size varies).
Community of Practice
Our Community of Practice (CoP) is a space where public health practitioners come together to explore, discuss, and develop shared understanding of strategies that advance health equity and racial justice. The CoP model helps participants deepen authentic relationships and “get on the same page” so they can act as meaningful partners in this work. We pair our CoP sessions with foundational workshops, technical assistance, and coaching on various topics to help public health practitioners learn new ways of being together and advance health equity more effectively.
Our Impact
Our Approach
Health Instead of Punishment Steering Committee:
We believe social change work must be rooted in accountability to people directly impacted by criminalization, incarceration, and surveillance, as well as movement leaders.
Aimee Gana
Incarcerated organizer, California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Dustin Gibson
PeoplesHub
Jackie Jahn
The Ubuntu Center at Drexel University, DeeperThanWater Coalition
Rehana Lerandeau
Critical Resistance
Maria Thomas
Beyond Do No Harm
Caesar Thompson
Abolitionist Public Health Student, Racial Public Health organizer
From our partners
“By shifting narratives, conducting impactful research, and organizing for change, HIP helps social justice organizations, like ours, push forward critical campaigns—like closing women’s prisons or challenging carceral public health frameworks…HIP plays a crucial role in showing how a just public health system can transform lives and communities.”
Pamela Fadem
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
“Our team used HIP’s research on housing, public health, and incarceration in Riverside in meetings with policymakers, public talking points documents, and press releases. Your expertise was really a huge help.”
Avalon Edwards
Starting Over, Inc.
Home Sick: Uncovering the Health Harms in Homes of America’s Manufactured Housing Communities
In collaboration with Manufactured Housing Action, we explored the state of housing habitability for 10 Homes of America manufactured home communities, and assessed the health impacts of these habitability issues on residents.
Reimagining Public Health Advocacy: Findings from a National Scan of Public Health and Community Power-building Groups
Drawing on a national scan of nongovernmental public health and community power-building groups, this report explains how we approach our work to shift the field of public health, the research we conducted to better understand the gaps between public health and community power-building organizations, and the implications of what we’ve learned.
Stop Cop Cities: Invest in Public Health Solutions
Drawing from public health literature and the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, Georgia, we authored a research report on the health harms posed by the growing number of police training facilities, commonly referred to as “Cop Cities.”
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