Health Equity facilitators are hosting a three-day workshop for Ingham County Health Department staff and interested community members. There is no fee to participate. The workshop consists of two consecutive days followed by a third day on a separate week. The next series will be held November 15, 16, and 30 at Foster Community Center, 200 N. Foster, Lansing, Michigan.

Workshops run from 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day and participation in all three days of the session is expected.

The workshop is dialogue-based and seeks to illuminate racism, classism, and other types of oppression as root causes of health inequity. It is part of a larger effort to transform the practice of public health and other organizations within a social justice framework. The workshop is a nationally recognized model for restoring a social justice/health equity framework for public health practice and other fields of work.

Workshop learning objectives:

• Learn language and conceptual frameworks that enable participants to engage in difficult conversations about oppression and unearned privilege as experienced in the United States. These frameworks include Target/Non-Target Identities; the Four Levels of Oppression and Change, and Primary Prevention in a Social Justice Framework.
• Explore the meaning of cultural identity across target and non-target groups.
• Understand the necessity and value of addressing racism and other forms of oppression explicitly as root causes of health inequity.
• Practice analyzing case studies in a social justice/health equity framework.
• Identify potential avenues and opportunities for advancing health equity through one’s work and personal life.

The workshop employs each of the following as triggers for dialogue:

• The lived experience of participants as members of target and non-target groups;
• Language constructs that help illuminate oppression and privilege in American society; and
• Practical analysis and application of health equity concepts to real-life scenarios.

In facilitating dialogue on subjects that may be uncomfortable for some participants, workshop leaders work to ensure that a) the point-of-view of the workshop is transparent from the outset, and b) disagreement with that point-of-view is welcomed and encouraged as part of the process of coming to terms with cultural forces that normally discourage a frank discussion of racism, other types of oppression, and their impact on the public’s health.

To register, please click here. Questions about the workshop can be directed to Jessica Yorko, ICHD Health Equity Coordinator, 517-272-4144; 517-281-2096; jyorko@ingham.org.