Mobilizing California’s academic schools and programs of public health: A collective impact model bridging social and historical divides towards community-driven policy, research, and action.

Michael Rodriguez, MD, MPH
California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity, Berkeley, CA

APHA 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo

Background

California’s schools and programs of public health help build the evidence base for health equity by documenting inequities and lifting up promising interventions designed to reduce them. Despite a history of social movements, scholarly research and community-academic partnerships, large racial, ethnic, socio-economic, geographic and other health inequities persist with many increasing throughout California and beyond.

The California Alliance of Academics and Communities for Public Health Equity (the Alliance) was formed in 2022 to grow, train, and strengthen a public health workforce dedicated to advancing health equity. The Alliance’s objective is to move California’s schools and programs of public health from isolated impact to collective impact, fighting to overcome social and political barriers between the University of California, California State University, and private university systems, as well as the challenging historical dynamics of community-academic partnership in public health work.

Growing a diverse and pro-equity public health workforce requires academics to engage with governmental and nongovernmental community public health experts as colleagues and equals, expanding the definition of “health workforce” to prioritize community-based workers who are critical to reaching those most impacted by health inequities.

Methods

Academic faculty, chairs and deans from 31 of California’s 35 schools and programs of public health have been recruited to participate in the Alliance’s initial work, along with governmental and nongovernmental community public health leaders. Participants collaborate through issue-focused Action Groups, Steering Committee leadership, a matchmaking program and a dedicated grant funding program supporting CBOs to collaborate with academic public health leaders. Collective impact serves as the theoretical framework for this work.

Results

In the first year and a half of its existence, mission was clarified, barriers identified and addressed, governance and infrastructure were developed and implemented. Alliance participants have grown a common policy agenda, begun developing shared curricula and training, and nurtured academic-community partnerships.

Conclusions

The Alliance has identified many lessons learned about converting participants’ initial interest into commitment to action and impact, as well as the best practices of recruiting and retaining community-based organizations into linkages with academics. This builds on the community engagement and collective impact literature with implications for the future.