Important Context:

The Brown County Health Equity Coalition was established to advance the achievement of equity in health in Brown County.  When talking about health equity, inclusion, belonging, and power are key components of a community’s ability to create positive change. With this in mind, the group identified three potential levers for true community change: education, advocacy and structural change. 

Supporting Factors:

• Focus both locally, statewide and nationally on health equity and health for all in communities
• Formal Health Equity Coalition established with a charter document and adopted action plan to advance this work
• Ongoing facilitation support from Brown County Public Health
• Leveraging assets for true community change from a wide variety of community partners, capitalizing on each one's strengths and resources
• Increase in dollars available from a variety of funders to support these efforts and build capacity to do this work
• Formal linkage established with the Community Health Improvement Plan and the support of the Beyond Health Steering Committee

Potential Barriers:

• Competing priorities and limited capacity for those who are currently engaged in this work
• Multiple community initiatives that may have some overlap: need intentionality around not duplicating efforts
• Data gaps around the indicator and how to measure policy implementation
• Diverse representation on the Coalition itself to ensure that priorities reflect true community needs
• Barriers in understanding the concept of "Health In All Policies (HiAP)" (both with coalition members and those who would potentially implement)
• Political will to advance HiAP is susceptible to change
• Survey/listening session fatigue among community members

Anticipated Factors:

• If funding levels and/or public interest in these topics shift, how does that impact the work of the Coalition?
• Ongoing need to monitor progress and keep initiatives moving forward even when barriers occur

Additional Research Needed: 

• Implementation strategies for HiAP
• Evaluation of impact on equity in communities when HiAP measures are implemented

The Health Equity Coalition is the lead organizing coalition for this work, and is comprised of members from key non-profit and health-focused agencies* in Brown County, including the following: 

• The Oneida Nation
• Advocate Aurora
• NEW Community Clinic
• Casa Alba Melanie
• Prevea Health
• YWCA
• Brown County Public Health (Coalition facilitation)
• Brown County ADRC
• Brown County United Way
• Bellin Health
• Former Brown County Racial Equity Ad Hoc Committee 
• Options for Independent Living
• Wello
• Brown County Health & Human Services - Community Services Division
• COMSA
• We All Rise African American Resource Center
• WI United Coalition Mutual Assistance Association (WUCMAA)
• Unity Hospice
• Law enforcement
• Newcap, Inc.

*unless otherwise noted above, each of the agencies' role is to contribute to the Coalition's stated goals within one of the workgroups and also to guide the work of the larger coalition.

Alignment of Efforts:

In addition to active participation from the above agencies, the Health Equity Coalition recognizes that other existing community initiatives are doing work directed towards these community goals.  The Health Equity Coalition is committed to intentionally aligning efforts, minimizing duplication, and amplifying successes whenever possible.  Examples include:

• Greater Green Bay Community Foundation
• Former Brown County Racial Equity Ad Hoc Committee
• Envision
• The Point Initiative
• Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce

Potential Partnerships:

• Salvation Army
• Wise Women Gathering Place
• Paul's Pantry
• Brown County Library
• Business community/for-profit sector

Research/Evidence-Based Practices:

• Health In All Policies (HiAP) implementation: https://www.cdc.gov/policy/hiap/index.html
• Trust building within marginalized communities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2446462/
• Conduct Health Impact Assessment(s) as appropriate to inform Health in All Policies work.

Low Cost/No Cost Solutions:

• Development and dissemination of foundational health equity educational materials to key stakeholders and community members
• Engagement with community groups in shared safe spaces
• Listening sessions/community conversations
• HiAP tool kits for key stakeholders

Innovative Strategies

• Creation of additional safe spaces/trusted locations in community (resource centers, etc.)
• Formal training for boards/decision-making bodies in an immersive and impactful way
• Formal funding to reimburse individuals for their time invested in advancing equity

The Health Equity Coalition (HEC) identified three key areas for engagement in 2023 and beyond to advance this important work: education, advocacy, and structural change. The intended purpose of the group is to advance health equity in Brown County by mobilizing teams focused on each of these areas, narrowing in on the following strategies :

• Compile and disseminate a communication tool kit focused on foundational concepts of health equity and health in all policies
• Engage in proactive strategies to build trust with marginalized community members
• Engage in intentional efforts to increase the number of representatives from marginalized communities on policy and decision-making bodies
• Establish clear data collection parameters for measuring and reporting success in this work, including both the performance measures and "I can influence decisions" indicator.
• Increase the number of policies in Brown County with Health In All Policies (HIAP) considerations. 

See below for the action plan for the Structural Change Workgroup - the team that is advancing work under the third key area of the HEC: 

StructuralChangeWorkgroupActionPlanMay2023.pdf