APHA Center for Public Health Policy  

Webinar #1 | Racism: The Ultimate Underlying Condition

This kick-off webinar of APHA's Advancing Racial Equity series examined racism and its historic and present-day impact on health and well-being. Presenters:

• identified the multiple levels on which racism operates;

• described the physiological impacts of racism and discrimination on health; and

• explored the principles for and barriers to achieving health equity.

Webinar #2 | A Path to Reproductive Justice: Research, Practices and Policies

The second webinar in APHA's Advancing Racial Equity series covered reproductive racial disparities. Presenters:

• Provided context of racism in reproductive care across multiple impacted groups;

• Shared current advocacy approaches to advancing reproductive health equity; and

• Highlighted current federal legislation that addresses the barriers to achieving reproductive justice.

Webinar #3 | Reborn Not Reformed: Re-Imagining Policing for the Public's Health

The third webinar in APHA's Advancing Racial Equity series:

• Described how racism operates in policing and the limitations of reform efforts

• Discussed the acute and chronic health impacts of over policing on Black and Latinx communities

• Explained what “Re-Imagining Policing” means for public safety, public health and society overall; and

• Identified and addressed the ways in which policing occurs in public health and other sectors.

Webinar #4 | Racial Healing for Ourselves, Our Communities and Our Future

The fourth webinar in APHA's Advancing Racial Equity series covered racial healing as essential for dismantling racism and advancing racial equity.

• Explained a model for truth, racial healing and transformation, or TRHT.

• Described efforts of the TRHT Campus Center at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

• Explored how Indigenous values can guide racial healing within and across communities.

Webinar #5: Housing is a Human Right

The fifth webinar in APHA's Advancing Racial Equity series covers structural racism in housing.

• Described the racist structures and policies that established housing inequality.

• Discussed the health impacts of racism in housing on communities of color.

• Highlighted pre- and post-COVID legislation related to housing.

• Provided an advocate's perspective of ways to advance equity through housing at the city and state level.

Webinar#6: Environmental Racism

Advancing Racial Equity Webinar Series Discussion Guide

This guide (PDF), to be used in conjunction with viewing the webinars, recaps the content of the webinars and provides discussion questions and activities to invoke meaningful conversations about racism and its connection to health inequities in the United States.

Across the country, there is growing acknowledgment of the impact of racism on the health of individuals and communities. Through resolutions, executive orders and other mechanisms, local leaders are declaring racism a public health crisis and committing to addressing systemic health and racial inequities. Local leaders are exploring policies and practices to move from commitment to action and how to best use policy to effect meaningful change toward health, racial equity and justice.

Launched in October 2021, Healing Through Policy: Creating Pathways to Racial Justice is an initiative of the de Beaumont Foundation, APHA, and the National Collaborative for Health Equity. In its first phase, the initiative’s partners and advisory committee identified a suite of racial equity policies and practices that can be implemented at the local level to promote racial healing and address social inequities.

• The Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation framework is a comprehensive, national, and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. TRHT recognizes that advancing racial equity and justice requires repairing past harms, addressing the underlying beliefs that fuel racism, and facilitating healing within and across communities.
• Healing Through Policy uses the TRHT framework in its curated suite of policies and practices that advance health and racial equity through the foundational components of Narrative Change, Racial Healing and Relationship Building, Separation, Law and Economy.

As of August 2021, 209 declarations of racism as a public health crisis have passed in 37 states. These declarations were adopted by city/town councils, county boards, governor/mayoral statements, education boards (e.g., school boards), and health associations or public health departments. While resolutions and formal statements themselves are not necessarily legally enforceable, they are an important first step in calling attention to racism and shifting the narrative in a way that can drive changes to policies, laws and resource allocation. These resolutions create the opportunity for strategic action to eliminate racist policies and practices and adopt those that advance racial equity. 

These declarations are an important first step to advancing racial equity and justice and must be followed by allocation of resources and strategic action.

Racism Declarations: Opportunities for Action

• While resolutions and formal statements are not necessarily legally enforceable, they can drive meaningful change. Our Analysis: Declarations of Racism as a Public Health Crisis  (PDF) shows how localities have taken actionable steps to address racism.
• Strategic Actions by Category:
  • Data and Accountability
  • Policies and Programs
  • Community Engagement
  • Funding
  • Organizational Capacity Training

Map of Racial Declarations

• The Map of Racial Declarations is intended to show a visual representation of where racial declarations have been passed geographically.
• Declarations by Geography:
  • The states with the most declarations to date are California (37), Ohio (27) and Connecticut (22). At the time of this analysis, 13 states did not have any declarations, at any level. Most declarations are concentrated in the western and midwestern regions of the United States, with 49 declarations passed in western states and 79 passed in midwestern states. 

Pre-Pandemic: 3.6 million evictions occur annually across the U.S.

At the end of 2020: 40 million renters were at risk of eviction; 80% of those facing addiction are Black and Latinx.

NOW:

Those experiencing unsheltered homelessness are at high risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality because they are less connected to health care and other support systems and more likely to have other health conditions. And, the groups that have increased the unsheltered population also represent those most at risk of negative health consequences of COVID-19. Despite increased risk, the true impact of the pandemic on the unsheltered is unknown, due to extremely limited data.