​Principle 1

Explicitly address issues of social and economic injustice and structural racism.


As McAfee, Blackwell and Bell (2015) state:

“Race remains the fundamental fissure in America; it compounds and perpetuates disadvantage across neighborhoods and generations… Racial inequities persist in all sorts of policies and practices, implicitly and explicitly… In fact, racial disparities exist on every measure of individual and community well-being.”


​Other Resources:

​Books and Articles:
  • Baril, N., Patterson, N., Boen, C., Gowler, R., Norman, N. (2011). Building a Regional Health Equity Movement: The Grantmaking Model of a Local Health Department. Fam Community Health, 34, S23-S43.
  • Koo, D., et al. (2016). An Environmental Scan of Recent Initiatives Incorporating Social Determinants in Public Health, National Academy of Medicine and Preventing Chronic Disease. Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, 13.
  • Flood, J., Minkler, M., Hennessey, S., Estrada., J., Falbe, J. (2015). The Collective Impact Model and Its Potential for Health Promotion. Health Education Behavior, 42, S654-S658.

Case Study: Health Equity and Social Justice

Tom Wolff PhD, Tom Wolff and Associates, Amherst MA, USA
An excellent example of this principle in action can be found in a case study of a community-led campaign to deal directly with equity and social justice as the root cause of health disparities. This effort — a partnership between the Boston Public Health Commission’s Center for Equity and Social Justice and neighborhoods throughout the city — hoped to affect high disparities in outcomes related to breast and cervical cancer among Black women in Boston. This specific story is the 3rd case study in the article, but the others are worth your time as well. For more information, please see the article by Tom Wolff in the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice.​