Summary

Power imbalances and structural oppression — including racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and others — are the root causes of health inequities. These forces work together to maintain the current conditions that keep many of us from accessing the collective resources we need to thrive and live free and healthy lives.

Because the imbalance of power in our society is the most upstream cause of the inequities we seek to change, it’s also the most impactful site for intervention. This suite of resources builds on foundations provided in its preceding sister resource, Set 1: Resources for Collaboration and Power Sharing Between Government Agencies and Community Power-Building Organizations. It is designed for governmental health employees to dive into power: what it is, who holds it, and how to leverage and redistribute it to create more equitable and healthy communities. Health departments can engage with these resources internally and in conjunction with community power-building organization (CPBO) partners and collaborators at other government agencies.

In this resource:

• Chapter 1: Assessing your Power - Provides an introduction to power, offering different definitions and frameworks for thinking about how to wield power to create change. It includes an activity to engage government employees and community power building partners in honest conversation about the distribution of power across the group and the different types of power held by agents in the group.
• Chapter 2: Landscape Analysis - Activity guide that walks you through how to identify and critically analyze the key players and stakeholders in a policy or systems change you’re seeking to make in order to advance your goal most effectively.
• Chapter 3: Power Mapping - Tool to assess the power landscape in regards to a specific policy or practice change you’re working toward and identify strategic pressure points. The process involves generating a list of key players — partners, opponents, powerful influencers, and other interested parties — and mapping them according to their influence and their level or support or opposition for your goal.