Find Resources
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
1: Ensure federal child care relief funds reach individual early care and education staff in the form of direct cash payments. 2: Ensure health coverage and guaranteed paid leave of at least two weeks for all staff working in regulated early care and education programs. 3: Adjust eligibility requirements for public safety net programs utilized by early childhood personnel until the period when all state ARPA funds related to child care are liquidated. 4: Prioritize equitable distribution of funding to programs located in communities with the most need, which have been impacted most acutely by this pandemic. 5: Improve systems administration and technical assistance to facilitate accessible, simple application processes. 6: Establish essential, yet simple data collection protocols to examine the utilization and impact of ARPA funding in order to inform future policies and resource allocation. 7: Prohibit the use of quality ratings as a determining factor for eligibility to receive ARPA funds or to condition levels of payment.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
White Paper/Brief
This brief describes work to partner health departments with community organizing groups, focusing on a collaboration between Santa Barbara County Public Health Department and two community organizations. These partnerships allow health departments to actively address power imbalances that may decrease community trust in health departments. The Santa Barbara Public Health Department developed an analysis of power and worked directly with grassroots organizers. To build trust, the health department undertook many actions, including sharing organizational charts, explaining decisions, facilitating personal sharing and trust exercises, spending time together, discussing structural racism, and more. During COVID-19, these partners shared information targeted towards those with various languages and literacy levels.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
We recommend that lead agencies, in partnership with other state agencies, implement the following provisions in support of the early care and education workforce: (1) Ensuring federal child care relief funds reach individual early care and education staff in the form of direct cash payments. (2) Ensuring health coverage and guaranteed paid leave of at least two weeks for all staff working in regulated early care and education programs. (3) Adjusting eligibility requirements for public safety net programs utilized by early childhood personnel until the period when all state ARPA funds related to child care are liquidated. (4) Prioritizing equitable distribution of funding to programs located in communities with the most need, which have been impacted most acutely by this pandemic. (5) Improving systems administration and technical assistance to facilitate accessible, simple application processes. (6) Establishing essential, yet simple data collection protocols to examine the utilization and impact of ARPA funding in order to inform future policies and resource allocation. (7) Prohibiting the use of quality ratings as a determining factor for eligibility to receive ARPA funds or to condition levels of payment.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This report outlines the catalyzing conditions for sustaining healthy communities, with the central premise being community power-building approaches. Public health partners can use this roadmap to build community power, which includes setting agendas, changing public discourse, building relationships with decision makers, and creating governance structures. The report also highlights sixteen community power-building efforts across the United States.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This report recommends changing work policies to support employee wellness at public health agencies. Public health infrastructure is often hard to maintain due to high turnover and burnout, especially during times of crisis like COVID-19. Work policies such as flexible schedules and remote work have been shown to increase employee well-being. It also recommends the establishment of cross-jurisdictional sharing arrangements to share key staff between public health departments, e.g., epidemiologists. This can serve as a solution to chronic underfunding of public health agencies at the federal level.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
RELEASE DATE:
White Paper/Brief
This article details how the Rhode Island Department of Health built its community-level COVID-19 response from existing capacities and networks through its Health Equity Zone Initiative. The initiative is a place-based, community-level model that brings a range of community members together to address pressing health issues and build capacity for systemic changes surrounding the social determinants of health. The state has used federal pandemic relief funds to expand the Health Equity Zone Initiative by providing resources to community partners, social service agencies, and grassroots organizations to be engaged in the pandemic response. The initiative’s partners provided critical community-based services including COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, quarantine and isolation supports, distribution of masks and other personal protective equipment, and direct outreach and education by community health workers and community outreach specialists.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
RELEASE DATE:
White Paper/Brief
This article describes how the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Health Equity Response Team, which is made up of more than 100 community partners, helps implement recommendations from the task force. The team meets every two weeks to address health inequities associated with COVID-19. Over the past 18 months the team has led initiatives to serve vulnerable populations. Initiatives such as faith-based vaccine sites, immigrant testing access, mobile community testing options, and agricultural worker testing bolstered the department’s response to COVID-19. The team facilitated community partnerships that drove personal protection equipment distribution, investigation of improved paid sick family/medical leave options, and the digital clemency process in the corrections field. The team also spawned the department’s efforts around improved race and ethnicity data enrichment, assessment, and reporting improvements.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
RELEASE DATE:
White Paper/Brief
This article describes how Virginia collected and reported data to inform COVID-19 response efforts and decisions. Virginia officials noted a hallmark of Virginia’s success has been the focus on data strategies and mapping techniques to identify COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and resource allocation priorities. For example, the working group used geospatial data to inform the distribution process for a personal protective equipment (PPE) pilot program that successfully distributed more than two million units of PPE across 66 local governments. The task force uses data stratified by race and ethnicity, medical vulnerability, and other social and environmental factors to identify locations for community engagement, outreach, testing, and vaccination clinics. The task force also launched two equity dashboards to provide a transparent measurement of ways COVID-19 resources have been allocated and equity gaps across various social determinants of health identified in Virginia House Joint Resolution 537.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
RELEASE DATE:
White Paper/Brief
This article describes how Wisconsin is implementing a Just Recovery Framework. It is a task force focused on recommendations for a fair and just recovery from the pandemic and embedding racial and rural equity in future emergency preparedness infrastructure. The task force reviewed existing literature and research and developed a strategic plan, including evidence-based policy and practice interventions to support just recovery after COVID-19. This plan offers practical guidance for local and state officials to address the pandemic and existing inequities exacerbated by the pandemic along the lines of racial equity, rural equity and worker health.
Novel Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and are in the process of generating evidence of effectiveness or may not yet be tested.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This article outlines the policies gathered and supported by Massachusetts’ Task Force on Coronavirus and Equity, including ensuring housing security, securing worker rights, demanding police accountability, applying data collection, and planning for equity.