Summary

Public health departments and community power-building organizations (CPBOs) around the country are forming partnerships and building power together to advance health equity. These partnerships have deep potential to shift structures and policies to transform the material conditions in communities most impacted by inequities.

This suite of resources is intended to guide health departments and other government agencies and CPBOs through the why and how to collaborate and share power. We offer activities to build internal capacity and lay the groundwork for partnership, tips for establishing trusting relationships with CPBO partners, and tools and practices for sharing power.

In this resource:

• Chapter 1: Actions to Support Community Power-Building Organizations - Explains why health departments should partner with CPBOs, how to build the internal foundations and authentic relationships for partnership, and walks through 4 concrete actions health departments can take to bring these partnerships to life
• Chapter 2: Planning for Collaboration - Helps both government agencies and CPBOs understand the types of collaboration that exist along a continuum of sharing power, and provides activities to lay the internal groundwork for starting collaborations
• Chapter 3: How to Conduct a One-to-One - Tip sheet that guides public health department practitioners in how to approach and set up a One-to-One as a core part of building an internal organizing strategy to advance health equity, and a foundational step in building authentic and trusting relationships with community organizers
• Chapter 4: Sharing Organizational Charts - Provides government agencies with tools to share their organizational charts with community partners to demystify internal hierarchy and share power

After completing the activities in this resource, we recommend you move on to Set 2: Activities to Deepen Your Power-Building Analysis