Building the public health equity field with community leaders and NNPHI

National Network of Public Health Institutes

Communications and outreach which centers broad, national and Western values does not typically resonate with communities of color, immigrant communities and other groups. In the throes of the COVID pandemic, the communication gap between such communities and public health posed a major challenge. Charged with protecting their communities, community-based organizations (CBOs) were the driving force behind developing and distributing tailored and tested, culturally- and linguistically-relevant communications to fill that gap and mobilize their communities.

The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), with support from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), recognized CBOs as place-based care delivery experts that hold valuable learning, experience and best practices to support a more equitable health care system for all. As part of the National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities, Spitfire worked with NNPHI to provide communications support for 10 CBOs to share their work in effective health equity programming and outreach during the pandemic. These CBOs supported a myriad of systemically overlooked communities – from addressing health disparities among new immigrants and refugees in King County, Washington to advocating for programs and policies that will improve the quality of life of Native American communities in Michigan.

Collaborating with CBOs
Spitfire began this project by holding individual office hours where we connected with each CBO to assess their specific communication needs and determine how we could help them reach priority audiences and achieve their goals. Together, we planned and executed tailored strategies that shared each CBO’s learnings and best practices in order to influence their local public health systems and move toward equitable health practices, policies and partnerships. 

Our work with each CBO was as varied as the CBOs themselves, ranging from collaborating on video production that highlighted work with community partners to creating compelling presentation decks and leveraging creative tactics to engage audiences and much more. Spitfire held regular check-ins with the CBOs to ensure that materials, processes, timelines and goals met their needs, made the best use of their time and resources and helped to build their capacities. To ensure the CBOs continue to engage their priority audiences beyond the grant period, Spitfire also provided the CBOs with a social media toolkit – including suggested copy and graphics – to highlight their work.

CBO Work Showcase
Spitfire also partnered with the CBOs to share their success with other CBOs and public health departments at the COVID-19 Health Disparities Grant Reverse Site Visit: Celebrating our Successes in March 2024. Hosted by NNPHI, this event brought together public health departments from across the nation, as well as CBOs and representatives of the CDC to promote health equity best practices and advance the health field. The CBOs involved in this project presented during two sessions: one covering CBO best practices for addressing social determinants of health in partnership with health departments and the other on breaking through the monolith, developing culturally-centered messages and activities. Spitfire worked with the CBOs to develop materials - including presentation decks, case studies, handouts and posters - showcasing their work and demonstrating the importance of health departments partnering with CBOs to best serve communities and foster health equity.    

Robyn Hall (left) and Liz Moreira, LISC Program Officers showcasing their case study at NNPHI's Reverse Site Visit.

Impact
The CBOs found their collaboration with Spitfire enabled them to think critically about how to make the best use of their resources, including repurposing content across channels and platforms to strategically engage their priority audiences and advance the public health equity field. The CBOs also shared that they learned valuable communications best practices that they can apply to their work going forward and engage in creative dissemination strategies to maximize reach.