Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their full health potential and that no one is disadvantaged, excluded, or dismissed from achieving this potential. At Prevention Institute, we focus on how structural drivers of inequity—such as racism, sexism, and income inequality—impact communities. And we support community-based organizations and advocates in building power and capacity to change the systems that created these inequities in the first place.

Racial justice is a primary focus of Prevention Institute’s health equity work because racism, discrimination, and other forms of racial injustice have resulted in dramatic health and safety disparities for communities of color. Without closing racially unjust gaps in health outcomes, we will not be able to achieve health, safety, and wellbeing for our nation as a whole.

Our work is implemented through partnerships and collaborations with coalitions, public health departments, and community-based organizations; and centers the lived experiences of communities whose voices have been historically excluded and underrepresented. We bring our tools and frameworks to inform and build capacity toward effective prevention, racial justice, and health equity strategy development. Our staff are our champions who bring both professional and personal experience to the table and help shape equity solutions that support community health, safety, and wellbeing

Bridging Health Equity & Racial Justice > Content Buckets
Bridging Health Equity & Racial Justice > Content Buckets
Bridging Health Equity & Racial Justice > Content Buckets
Bridging Health Equity & Racial Justice > Content Buckets
A system of prevention for Racial Justice and Health Equity

Community members and racial justice advocates are collectively pursuing transformative solutions designed for equity and justice, which requires dismantling and replacing policies, practices, and investment patterns that reinforce structural racism.  Prevention Institute is joining this call to action through a body of work to advance a System of Prevention for Racial Justice and Health Equity that supports health, safety, and wellbeing.

This new brief describes four shifts in the urban planning sector to advance equity and racial justice, steer decisions more directly toward communities’ benefit, respect grassroots power to drive solutions, and root out pay-to-play influence in the land use system. While this brief was written with insights from the Los Angeles context, the overall principles are applicable to any community working to address inequities in land use and the built environment.

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In January 2016, with generous support from the California Community Foundation through its Centinela Valley Medical and Community Fund (hereafter referred to as the Fund), Prevention Institute (PI) initiated the Leaders in Equity to Advance Prevention in the Centinela Valley (LEAP-CV) project. Consistent with the Fund’s expanded guidelines, the goal of the LEAP-CV project is to engage leaders working in the Centinela Valley to identify and prioritize strategic actions to address community determinants of health. Community determinants of health influence and shape opportunities to lead healthy lives and encompass a range of factors. This report highlights findings from the research phase of the LEAP-CV project, and comprises a landscape analysis conducted through key informant interviews of Centinela Valley organizational, community and healthcare leaders, as well as a brief review of the literature.

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