Community Advisory Bodies and Workgroups
The Community Prevention and Population Health Taskforce is tasked with reporting to the Board of Supervisors on health, equity and community wellbeing. As the Center's Advisory Board, the Taskforce makes recommendations on policies and practices to improve health equity across the county. The Taskforce also oversees the Department of Public Health’s ongoing community health planning efforts to improve population health for all LA County community members. Learn more about the Community Prevention and Population Health Taskforce.
Comprised of community leaders with significant expertise and impactful leadership in data to advance equitable health outcomes in LA County communities, the Data Workgroup meets monthly to advise on best practices for timely, disaggregated, and community-specific data related to COVID-19 response. The Data Workgroup members provide input on strategies for COVID-19 data inclusion, data accessibility, and standardization of data collect by Public Health, with particular attention to highly impacted and historically underrepresented communities. The Data Workgroup efforts are funded by Public Health's CDC PARTNER grant.
Comprised of community leaders representing highly impacted communities that experience language barriers, the Language Justice Workgroup are leaders and stakeholders with knowledge and expertise in health inequities resulting from language barriers. Through participation in monthly meetings, Workgroup members provide Public Health with feedback on key operational challenges related to developing and disseminating culturally, linguistically, and literacy-appropriate resources related to the COVID-19 response and recovery. The Language Justice Workgroup efforts are funded by Future of Public Health grant.
Over 40 DPH staff which consists of 4 subcommittees focused on streamlining recommendations from the External Language Justice Workgroup.
15 community-based organizations provided recommendations on all matters related to language justice for our department:
For more information about the Language Justice Workgroup and the proposed recommendations click here.
CHE is involved in other partnerships around the Language Justice:
The workgroup aims to foster workforce environments where people feel more welcomed, included, and valued, with a particular focus on supporting those who identify as Black. By dismantling discriminatory practices rooted in anti-Black racism, these efforts will benefit all groups affected by prejudice or discrimination, including other people of color, women, lower-paid workers, older people, and members of other protected categories.
An ad hoc group is working to identify and improve practices and procedures that support the transgender, gender nonbinary, and intersex (TGI) community and staff. Examples of work include updating processes for changes to “chosen” names, enhancing training and resources, and incorporating guidance provided by allied LGBTQIA+ organizations/groups, and developing strategies to increase representation in the DPH workforce while refining existing systems for current TGI workforce members.
A workgroup with around 30 DPH staff who inform the work around addressing disability and accessibility issues.
The Center for Health Equity also works with community partners around the following areas:
Public Health Alliance - Regional Language Access Workgroup: Discussions in this workgroup center around important language justice topics and collaborative work across the region.
Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative (ARDI) - CHE serves in a liaison role between ARDI and DPH and supports the department's Equity Action Team (EAT). EAT members include CHE staff and representatives from the African-American Infant and Maternal Mortality (AAIMM) Initiative, Office of Violence Prevention (OVP)and the Service Planning Area 4 (SPA4-Metro) Regional Health Office. EAT members are active in each of the ARDI workgroups and subcommittees, and engage in trainings and meetings with the goal if advancing equity in Los Angeles County through strategic planning and other equity initiatives. For more information about ARDI click here.