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OFFICE OF HEALTH EQUITY  |  Health Equity Policy & Planning (HEPP) UNIT

Our Vision and Mission 

Our vision is a healthy, equitable, and environmentally sustainable California where all people thrive and health equity principles are the foundation of government policies and practices. The Health Equity Policy & Planning Unit's mission is to provide statewide leadership in policy, systems, and environmental change by improving health, equity, and environmental sustainability in California government decision-making, practices, and policies.

Our Approach

To accomplish our mission, we:

  • Provide guidance, training, technical assistance, communication, and leadership to strengthen capacity for upstream, innovative public health practice. 
  • Elevate the priorities of communities facing health inequities as central to California policies and practices across sectors.
  • Address the systems, structures, and policies that shape health outcomes, health inequities, and climate change through partnership and cross-sectoral collaboration. 
  • Convene and facilitate multi-sectoral discussions on complex, cross-cutting issues.
  • Engage with stakeholders, partners, and decision-makers, including government at all levels.
  • Assess policies and procedures, conduct research, and elevate the role of data to promote promising practices and inform action.

We work on the living conditions, institutional inequities, and social inequities that shape health outcomes--these are sometimes called the social determinants of health. This is illustrated by the public health conceptual framework below (Figure 1). We work to increase the capacity of state and local public health practitioners and our non-health partners to work on these social determinants of health.

Diagram of the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative's Conceptual Framework on the social determinants of health

Figure 1: Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) Conceptual Framework, 2006.

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