Part 2 of this two-part webinar series on Injury, Violence, Health Equity & Social Justice.

The second webinar in the 2014-2015 ASTHO-NACCHO-Safe States webinar series examined the social and political systems that generate health inequities, and showed how a local health department is working on these inequities through programs relevant to injury and violence prevention.

The Politics of Health Inequity: Public Narrative and Social Justice

Richard Hofrichter, PhD explored how racism and class exploitation are fundamental causes of health inequity, and how the dominant public narrative obscures imbalances in political power and serves to limit public health-driven solutions to programs and services instead of widespread social changes.

Taking Action to Achieve Health Equity: The Alameda County Public Health Department

Katherine Schaff, MPH discussed why the Alameda County Public Health Department (Oakland, CA) is focused on social inequities and health equity, how it promotes health equity through a comprehensive community-centered local policy agenda, and what it took to get there. She provided an overview of ACPHD’s work, including its Place Matters local policy initiative and other concrete examples of working on underlying social inequities.

Continuing education credits are offered for this training for Safe States members. These include credits for individuals who are Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Certified in Public Health (CPH).