about

The Committee for California’s Health

Mission: The Committee for California’s Health is part of a movement among California’s public health departments to expand everyone’s opportunity to achieve optimal health and to advance health equity by addressing social inequalities. We support and align health equity practice at local health departments and among community and other partners across the state, creating an environment in which they can teach and learn from one another.

Who we are: We are composed of leadership of organizations working with local health departments regionally and statewide. The committee is currently staffed by Human Impact Partners and supported by The California Endowment.

How we advance health equity:

• We expand and deepen understanding of health equity practice by acknowledging, validating, and celebrating exemplary and emerging health equity practice.
• We focus on making internal changes at local health departments in order to have greater impact, reach, and influence externally.
• We encourage local health departments to work on social determinants of health policy and systems change by forming strong partnerships with community groups and with people in other sectors (e.g., housing, climate change, healthcare).
• We work to change the narrative about what creates health, using data and research to make it impossible to ignore the issue.

Strategies:

• Convene LHD leadership and staff
• Share information about trainings, events, strategies, case studies, etc. that California Health Departments are using to advance health equity practices among LHD leadership and staff
• Offer opportunities to take policy/advocacy/legislative action to LHD leadership and staff, and take joint action as a committee.

Activities:

Our initial work focused on the Advancing Health Equity Awards, highlighting health equity practice in California public health departments in order to recognize and support innovative local public health department work that strives to achieve health equity. The purpose has been to showcase and reward public health department practices — with awards totalling $175,000 the first two cycles, and $235,000 the third cycle — that can inform future work committed to health equity.  The awards ceremony has been followed by a workshop. Our intention is to hold the Awards every two years and the workshop yearly. Given how the Corona Virus is changing our social landscape, the Committee will re-evaluate how best to bring public health practitioners together.