For the 2022 and 2023 Organizational Assessment for Equity Infrastructure, Tulare County Public Health’s top three competency priorities were Community Based Organization & Resident Engagement; Training, Development and Support; and lastly Embed Equity Principles. Understanding the need in embedding equity principles and growing community partnerships, Tulare’s team conducted an assessment with community partners based on BARHII’s Organization Self-Assessment to assist in meeting an accreditation standard/measure. The assessment was originally conducted in 2017 and was conducted again in 2023. As part of the assessment, the team asked community partners and subcontractors their need for support developing an equity policy and attending equity trainings offered by the department. The assessment found that partners did want support in equity infrastructure and training. This led to the department’s development of an equity policy template that can be adapted by community-based organizations when creating their own equity policy.
Below are reflections from the Tulare team in their journey in developing a policy template.
How did your team begin the process of obtaining data from community-based organizations?
We worked across the department to identify the various partners and subcontractors to conduct the assessment as broadly as possible. We offered partners about three weeks to complete the assessment to ensure as much engagement as possible. Then an analysis was done to assess the relationships with partners and compare to the last survey conducted in 2017. The partners that identified the need for policy and training support around equity. The policy was shared with those who requested the support.
Where there any obstacles or challenges your team faced in completing this project?
If so, what did your team do to pivot or overcome these obstacles or challenges?
A few of the challenges were continuous community partner engagement and introducing training on equity. Tulare County Public Health would not have been able to determine the needs and importance of an equity policy, unless partners knew the importance and use of it. We provided trainings to establish a foundation of understanding that would guide us to identifying opportunities. We also worked towards securing a staff dedicated to outreach to be able to meet the organizations where they are at.
What advice would you give another LHJ who is interested in creating an Equity Policy Template?
Use the tools CDPH had provided through the California Equitable Recovery Initiative, for example the State Health Equity Plan (SHEP) to align with internal agency goals and objectives identified through PHAB Accreditation, CHIP, and Strategic Plans for external partnership mobilization. Many partners are doing equity work but lack the infrastructure to formalize the principles, as your department identifies policies, frameworks, and communication plans identify if there is a way to make it “generic” so that it can be shared beyond your department to build your partners capacity as well.
For more information around Tulare County’s Equity Policy Template, contact Luis A. Cortez at lcortez@tularecounty.ca.gov.
