The Health Equity and Prevention Primer was created as part of Prevention Institute's project: Advancing Public Health Advocacy to Eliminate Health Disparities and builds upon the Institute's broader efforts to improve environments for health and health equity. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided support for this effort through their national program designed to strengthen public health capacity through policy.
The Health Equity and Prevention Primer was developed based on guidance from national health equity experts as well as from information gathered from key informant interviews, pilot testing among health department staff and community leaders, current literature and existing toolkits, databases and case examples relevant to health, safety and equity. The intent was to provide public health practitioners with frameworks and tools to increase skills and knowledge of policy and environmental approaches to achieve health equity. The goal is to contribute to the groundswell of national efforts aimed at building safer, healthier and more equitable communities.