Provide Training, Technical Assistance & Capacity Building Support
As a public health institute, IPHI has an important role to play offering workforce training opportunities, providing technical assistance to government and community partners, and building community capacity to advance population health and health equity.
Training and Education
Skill development, leadership cultivation, and continuous learning are critical aspects of ensuring that professionals in health-related sectors in our region are as effective as they can be. We serve as a resource for the region in creating shared learning opportunities. This may range from convening educational sessions on emerging topics relevant to the public’s health to providing more comprehensive training programs meant to develop a segment of the public health workforce. As an example, we have provided comprehensive training to over 200 traditional and non-traditional public health professionals and community leaders on advancing health equity and racial justice in their work and organizations.
In addition, IPHI is one of the region’s leading resources for the training of community health workers (CHWs). We have played a role in training over 700 community health workers across our region and the country. In addition, we have trained over 130 staff at health care organizations on how to integrate community health workers into their clinical care teams.
Technical Assistance
IPHI provides technical assistance and capacity-building support to organizations and community partnerships as they pursue organizational and community health goals. For example, we provide technical assistance to multiple statewide early childhood coalitions across the country through a partnership with Nemours National Office of Policy and Prevention on strategies to integrate an equity lens into data utilization, community engagement, coalition development, and strategy implementation. In one case, a longstanding statewide early childhood coalition has initiated a process to re-evaluate the composition of their coalition and to intentionally broaden its representation to include voices of affected communities, including childcare providers, parents, farmers, and others from communities of color and other currently underrepresented communities. Others have used our equity impact review tool to identify opportunities to enhance the effects of policies and strategies on equity, and identify and ameliorate unintended consequences of decisions on equity.
Capacity Building
IPHI works with partners to build community capacity to address critical public health challenges or function effectively within the public health system. As an example, we are supporting the Blue Ridge Health District in Virginia as they adapt their internal policies and practices to become an anti-racist organization committed to promoting health equity. Our capacity-building work with them includes in-depth workshops on strategies and best practices for organizational leadership and equity committees to lead transformational change for equity. We have also provided guidance on key organizational issues such as workforce diversity, community engagement, customer service, communications, and evaluation and accountability. Another example is our work with a statewide early childhood coalition in Pennsylvania, Keystone Kids Go. After participating in our 2-day Healthy and Equitable Communities workshop, the coalition requested additional support in infusing an equity lens throughout their coalition. To that end, we provided additional training to a broader network of partners that focused on understanding and addressing implicit bias and utilizing an equity impact review (EIR) tool to guide their work. We provided additional, in-depth guidance on the application of an EIR to their statewide strategic plan. We are also offering “equity office hours” for the workgroups to receive additional support as they operationalize equity in their plans.
