Achieving healthier, more equitable communities involves more than health care and more than “traditional” public health practice. Protecting and promoting the public’s health requires safe, affordable housing; streets free of violence, where kids and their families can congregate; quality education and a livable wage; access to public transportation, bike paths, and more. If we lay this firm foundation, healthy choices become infinitely easier.

To get there, governmental public health departments must be able to:

• persuade policymakers that health is driven by more than individual choices and health care;
• collaborate with other city officials and agencies; and
• collaborate with community-based organizations.

Designed for public health professionals, this webinar series will explore the Urban Health Agenda, a vision put forth by the Big Cities Health Coalition for centering health and equity in city policymaking. Get an introduction to the vision, then hear from big city health departments who are making this vision come to life.

Past webinars in this series

Interagency collaboration (Dec. 8, 2022)

Our first Cities: The Future of Health webinar focuses on interagency collaboration as a key component of public health’s success and features a discussion with Anneta Arno, Director of the Office of Health Equity at DC Health. She discusses her department’s collaboration with DC Water to reduce lead levels in the city’s water supply, how the collaboration came about, and challenges they met along the way. She also shares advice for health departments interested in collaborating with other city or county departments.

Collaborating with community-based organizations (Jan. 12, 2023)

This webinar focuses on collaboration with community-based organizations as a key component of public health’s success and features a discussion with Charlene McGee and Mikayla Hill, both from the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program at the Multnomah County Health Department, which serves Portland, OR, and the surrounding area. McGee and Hill walk through the health department’s collaboration with Black farmers to address nutrition-related disease prevention, while improving food access and affordability. They share how this partnership came about, how they approach the farms as true partners in the process, challenges they have faced together along the way, and advice for public health departments who want to collaborate more effectively with community-based organizations.

Addressing social determinants of health (Feb. 7, 2023)

Our third Cities: The Future of Health webinar focuses on addressing social determinants of health and features a discussion with Annie Daymude and Tiffany Tu, who both work on Community Health Impact for Maricopa County Public Health, which serves Phoenix, AZ, and the surrounding area. Daymude and Tu discuss Maricopa County’s innovative COVID-19 stories dashboard – what inspired it, what they learned, what the project reveals about how intertwined our health is with broader social determinants, and how the health department is using the feedback/stories they’ve received to shape future programs and services.