Summary

HIP’s 2015–2019 Strategic Plan charted our direction for the next phase of our organizational journey. Building on nearly a decade of work using Health Impact Assessment and other public health tools to advance health equity, the plan called for HIP to more intentionally align our research, advocacy, and capacity building with the priorities of community organizing groups and social justice movements.

At the heart of the plan was a shift in how we understood our role: from primarily bringing public health analysis to individual projects and policy decisions to building longer-term partnerships with movements working to change the conditions that shape health and equity. The plan envisioned HIP as a leader and partner in those movements, not simply a supporter.

The strategic plan includes:

• A mission and vision grounded in health equity, community power, and the social determinants of health
• A strategic direction focused on bringing public health science to campaigns and movements for a just society
• Three core strategies: research, advocacy, and capacity building/leadership development
• A commitment to deep partnership with community organizing groups and to supporting their priorities and campaigns
• Strategies for thought leadership and field building to strengthen public health’s role in advancing social justice
• An updated theory of change connecting HIP’s strategies to social justice victories, stronger community power, and improved health and equity

The plan also articulated what HIP called “The HIP Way”: an approach grounded in deep partnership with community groups, equity, humility, flexibility, and accountability. It challenged HIP to use our position within public health not only to produce strong research, but to help shift the field itself toward greater action on the policies and systems that determine health.

The 2015–2019 Strategic Plan captures an important chapter in HIP’s evolution and the growing clarity that continues to shape our work today: achieving health equity requires public health to work in deep partnership with communities and movements building power for social change.