Dear Readers,
As 2024 came to a close, we debated whether we should do this year-in-review. After the 2024 election, November and December felt like an entirely different year than the months that came before. And why look backwards when we were confronted by a daunting set of weeks, months, and years ahead?
In our conversations, a common theme emerged, which gave us our answer: ‘But we love this practice. We’re buoyed by recounting our collective achievements, and seeing how our ecosystem has grown.’ We can’t let feelings of despair and urgency usurp our long-term strategies and commitments. Instead, we need to honor and lean into the instinct to root ourselves in shared accomplishments and lessons learned, even and especially when moments of crisis turn our worlds upside down. These shared stories and reflections are a valuable guide for future efforts, and inspiration to continue the good fight.
Many of you are a part of our 2024 story. Whether it’s joining new advocacy coalitions, mobilizing together for policy change, participating in racial equity organizational change efforts, or transcending silos to bridge across movements, one thing is clear: Without you, there is no us. Our relationships and our commitments to show up for our shared vision are what make all of this possible.
The importance of these relationships becomes clearest in the midst of challenges and struggle. From Trump’s slew of harmful executive orders and firing of tens of thousands of public servants to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires a few months ago, we’re grieving the tragedy and loss wrought by the convergence of social, political, and environmental crises that define this era. But we’re finding hope in the people turning toward one another in mutual aid and care, resisting and organizing to build the new, and maintaining radical hope for our transformed, interconnected vision of the future. We know that solidarity and community power are the lifeline to our shared future.
In the year ahead, we will listen to the moral compasses that brought us to public health, weave ever-tighter our social fabric, and nurture a culture of care, joy, and hope.
POLICY & ORGANIZING
• Built 1 national and 1 statewide coalition uniting public health and community power-building organizations for systemic change, with over 35 public health organizations signing on to support federal rent cap advocacy
• Collaborated with community organizing partners to produce 3 powerful pieces of research supporting campaigns for health equity and justice
• Engaged 38 public health students and 38 incarcerated people in collaborative learning through HIP’s Abolitionist Public Health Network
• Provided advocacy, health equity language, and testimony to advance 63 federal, state, and local bills and policies
CAPACITY BUILDING
• Facilitated 162 Technical Assistance/Coaching sessions and 21 Community of Practice sessions across multiple public health organizations
• Provided 20 trainings to 382 participants across 8 states
• Hosted 2 convenings: the Health Equity Awakened Leadership Institute Alumni Reunion with 60+ participants, and the Narratives for Health Strategic Planning Convening with 28 participants representing 12 organizations
• Hosted a webinar for our updated Health Equity Guide with nearly 600 participants
BRIDGING PARTNERSHIPS & STRATEGIES
• Worked intensively with 4 inspiring partnerships of health departments and community power-building organizations via our Power-Building Partnerships for Health 2024 cohort
• Facilitated 16 trainings, workshops, and presentations for public health agencies, community-based organizations, and grassroots organizing groups
• Provided direct technical assistance and support to agencies and organizations across 7 states
PUBLICATIONS & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
• Created 24 unique resources to build public health capacity and advance social justice movement campaigns
• Hosted 5 webinars and 6 convenings, spoke at over 30 panels and speaking engagements, presented at 5 national conferences and convenings, and were featured in 12 news articles
• Reached a newsletter subscriber audience of nearly 11,500 with health equity highlights, updates, and tools
Our work spanned across 24 states in 2024
In 2024, we released groundbreaking research to support powerful advocacy and organizing campaigns.
Corporate Wealth vs. Community Health, a first-of-its-kind research report and local government action agenda spotlighting the health harms caused by corporate landlords, sparked media coverage in more than 5 news outlets, including NBC News and KPFA, and elevated the role of public health in countering corporate power. Our research on how climate change and transition impact the health of California workers helped advance two key California policy wins for worker safety. And we deepened the national conversation on carceral harms with our report Stop Cop Cities; Invest in Public Health Solutions, aligning public health narratives with community-led movements against police training facilities.
Our Abolitionist Public Health Student Network fostered shared learning across prison walls about abolitionist public health and community organizing principles. Our fall cohort included 38 students who were connected to 38 incarcerated participants. We also expanded this year to support a faculty cohort of 18 members from schools of public health across the US, building academic capacity for abolition-focused education and research.
We celebrated significant policy wins through collaborative advocacy with grassroots organizations, including Cal/OSHA’s adoption of worker protections including an indoor heat standard, and passage of a California bill to study how to implement green social housing. Inquest highlighted our continued advocacy for alternatives to incarceration, prison closures, and prison moratoriums, using public health framing to influence legislative and policy debates.
During this election year, our national Public Health Awakened network of 3,740 members swung into action, organizing around voting access, elevating a health equity narrative, and getting out the vote on critical state ballot measures. After the election, we brought together our network to make sense of the results and plan for the work ahead.
We also successfully launched the Public Health for Community Power Coalition, a national initiative uniting 12 public health organizations to cultivate and build support for community power-building campaigns and movements for social change. In California, we built the Housing Justice and Health Equity Collaborative, a coalition of 20+ organizations advocating for green social housing and housing reforms as key drivers of health equity.
“HIP has a unique ability to bridge public health with social justice, leveraging its expertise, networks, and vision to tackle systemic inequities. By shifting narratives, conducting impactful research, and organizing for change, HIP helps social justice organizations, like ours, push forward critical campaigns — like closing women’s prisons or challenging carceral public health frameworks. Public health and public safety are deeply connected, and HIP plays a crucial role in showing how a just public health system can transform lives and communities.”
— Pam Fadem, California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)
"HIP has this rare ability to operate credibly and authentically across so many different parts of the public health ecosystem, always bringing a power analysis and a power-building lens. You all are willing to put yourselves at the intersection of organizing and public health — the messy, hard work of bridging inside-outside strategies. That’s unusual to find in one organization, and it’s where powerful change happens."
— Katie Bolbach, Executive Director, Partners in Health, US
In 2024, we relaunched the Health Equity Guide, a comprehensive resource for public health departments and practitioners to effectively implement health equity and racial justice work.
The new and improved Guide offers 15 strategic practices, organized using a cyclical gardening framework, to illustrate how each mutually supports health equity goals. HIP Capacity Building staff presented the Guide to public health practitioners at NACCHO 360 in July 2024.
We also held a Strategy Convening with our Narratives for Health (NFH) partners in Madison, WI, achieving three objectives: deepening relationships amongst the 28 people across 12 partner organizations, identifying narrative strategies using a conjunctural analysis process, and brainstorming next steps to strengthen our health equity narrative infrastructure.
Our Capacity Building team continued to deepen relationships with public health departments to advance equity work together across the country. We partnered with Chicago Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity in All Policies to support the rollout of a city-wide Equity Decision Support Tool. We also led two workshops on health equity and power to 80 staff participants at Wright County Public Health (MN) to help the Health Equity Action Team deepen their leadership and practice. We worked with Adams County (CO) Health Department's Equity Justice Council, starting with an in-person kickoff in August to help build relationships and a ‘container’ for the work together. And we completed our Building a Container and Foundation for Health Equity Series with the Vermont Health Department.
“HIP’s Capacity Building team has been invaluable, providing training and TA at every level, from leadership to frontline staff. The training, tools, and support have helped us navigate complex equity challenges. You play a vital role in strengthening local public health, now more than ever."
— Dr. Kiran Joshi, Cook County Department of Public Health, HEA Leadership Institute Alum
“My time in HEA helped me finally understand why I was doing this work — why I was involved in equity and justice. It ignited a fire in me that I carried back to my agency and personal life to make meaningful changes. That spark has stayed with me ever since."
– Ellie Vanasse, Wright County Health and Human Services, HEA Leadership Institute Alum
Power-building Partnerships for Health (PPH) continues to thrive and provide inspiring examples of collaborations between public health and social movements. In 2024, we launched a new PPH cohort with four pairs of health departments and community power-building organizations in Lansing / Ingham County, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Kane County, Illinois; and Monterey County, California. Organizations in this cohort are working on a wide range of intersecting issues, including racial justice, community safety, education, and mental health.
Our PPH Collective Gathering in New Orleans welcomed the new 2024 PPH cohort and deepened relationships with alumni from our 2023 cohort. While in New Orleans, both cohorts learned more about last year’s PPH partnership between Step Up Louisiana and the New Orleans Health Department and their successful ballot initiative campaign to pass a Workers Bill of Rights. HIP published a case story and short video about the partnership’s work together, highlighting how they used inside-outside strategy to win their campaign and amend the New Orleans City Charter – affirming critical commitments to a fair living wage, paid leave, the ability to form a union, and healthcare coverage.
Our Bridging team continues to provide workshops, training, and technical assistance to build community power and help public health agencies leverage their power to support community organizing groups.
In 2024, we published an article on Bridging Public Health and Social Movements, advised the CDC Foundation in their report on Strengthening Partnerships between Public Health and Community-Based Organizations, and delivered a keynote speech on community power at the annual meeting of the NIH Common Fund ComPASS. We also convened an advisory group of experts on community power-building to inform the development of an upcoming toolkit, “Five Dimensions of Inside-Outside Strategy,” which we’re excited to share in 2025.
“Power-building Partnerships for Health was one of the most important opportunities to learn about powerful tools, build intentional relationships, and understand each other’s power. I felt included and valued as an immigrant, having a safe space to talk in my first language and receive materials that I could easily read and understand. Our partnership made a positive impact for families by changing policies and systems.”
— Sara Gonzalez, COFI (Community Organizing and Family Issues), PPH 2024 Cohort Participant
“HIP has always done a great job of centering community in public health, making sure that folks on the frontlines of health injustices are positioned to imagine and build the solutions that will work for everyone, and establishing public health as a leading sector in advancing justice.”
— Ben Palmquist, Partners for Dignity & Rights, Five Dimensions Advisory Group Member
2024 was a big year for HIP research, resource, and messaging production.
HIP produced and disseminated over 24 unique health equity advocacy and capacity building resources, and authored or contributed to 8 blog posts, op-eds, and journal articles, including an article in Health Affairs on reimagining public health advocacy, drawing on findings from our national landscape scan of community power–building groups and public health organizations.
We engaged narrative strategy as a tool to advance health equity and social justice, with a growing emphasis on power-building. Our Narratives for Health program in collaboration with County Health Rankings & Roadmaps entered its fourth year. Drawing on that work, HIP produced a short film, Narratives for Health Equity that explores how dominant narratives have perpetuated health inequities, and how building transformative narrative power offers a pathway to creating a world that truly supports health.
In October, we coordinated the first-ever Narratives for Health Strategy Convening in Madison, Wisconsin, bringing together core partners from across the country to vision the work ahead. Internally, we’ve continued to assess, strategize, and disseminate the narratives we need to build collective power and protect the public’s health, particularly following the 2024 election, and to replace the harmful dominant narrative with our vision for a society where everyone has what they need to thrive.
We’re also reimagining our digital presence to meet the moment. We made significant progress in developing a brand-new website for HIP as part of a larger rebrand set to launch in 2025. We hope the new platform will reflect our evolving work and identity, provide easier access to our tools and resources, and help make deeper connections across our public health ecosystem. In addition, we made the necessary move off Elon Musk’s toxic platform, and joined the migration from X to Bluesky – find us there at @hiporg!
“The co-learning that happens when I am in spaces with HIP people is really beneficial to deepen my understanding, to push me to think differently, and to be able to bring that thinking back into the spaces and places that I’m working has been so beneficial. ”
— Sheri Johnson, Director, Population Health Institute, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R), Narratives for Health partner
In 2024, our stable organizational base allowed us to invest in making HIP more sustainable and strategic.
We started updating our next strategic plan, engaging staff, board, and external partners in charting our path for the next five years. With a draft outline completed by November, we were well-positioned to double-check our work against the election results and refine our strategies to reflect the reality of what we must do to defend our communities and our field against the new administration.
As part of our strategic planning effort, we held our annual HIP All-Staff Strategy Week outside of the Bay Area for the first time ever, in Milwaukee, WI! In recognition of our nationally-distributed team, we brought everyone together in the Midwest, where HIP has many years of partnerships with local organizations and a concentration of staff.
We also developed and advanced HIP’s first comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, designed to keep us all connected and protected from online risks and other tech disruptions. Drawing on best practices from specialists and other organizations, we’ve implemented about 75% of our strategy, and right on time to be ready for potential increased threats to organizational security.
And we continued to strengthen our internal policies to take good care of our staff. Most notably, we launched a Four-Day Work Week pilot, reducing our working hours and restructuring internal work practices to allow time for restoration and ensure that our efforts are more sustainable over the long-haul. We also updated our sabbatical policy and are studying ways to make our salary structure more transparent, predictable, and fair.
“HIP's operations staff bring such care and intentionality — they embody our mission and values in HIP's internal workings.”
— HIP staff member
“The Operations Team was a huge part of my 2024. What I love and appreciate is being able to bring Operations Team members into projects at the development stage. Everything I do at HIP is done more smoothly, more timely, and more equitably because of our amazing Operations Team.”
— HIP staff member
Looking Ahead
In a year marked by profound challenges, the highlights from our work shared here help remind us why we continue to show up for one another and our collective vision. The power of our partnerships, our shared commitment to equity, and the resilience of our communities have guided us through 2024, preparing us to face what lies ahead with renewed hope and determination. Together, we'll continue nurturing a world rooted in care, joy, and radical hope for a future that truly supports collective health and well-being.
Acknowledgements
We are so grateful to our philanthropic partners who provide thought partnership, support our vision and work, and encourage innovation and taking risks. Deep gratitude to (in alphabetical order): Blue Shield of California Foundation, Freedom Together Foundation, Kresge Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund.
We also appreciate the ongoing partnership of the many health organizations who provide us funding support for our partnerships, including (but not limited to): Centers for Disease Control Foundation, National Association of County and City Health Officials, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, and many other individual health departments and nonprofit organizations.
Human Impact Partners transforms the field of public health to center equity and builds collective power with social justice movements. Want to learn more about anything you read? Have questions, feedback, connections to make? Reach out to us at info@humanimpact.org and visit us at www.humanimpact.org.