Pathways to Health Equity through Civic Engagement
Pathways to Health Equity through Civic Engagement
The Center’s John B. Francis Chair, Erika Blacksher, PhD, studies ethical and policy questions raised by health inequalities in the U.S. and the role of civic engagement in advancing health equity and social justice.
Under Dr. Blacksher’s leadership in collaboration with a seasoned research team and guided by a 15-member committee of local, regional and national experts in population health sciences, democratic deliberation, intersectionality and health justice, the Center’s new project, Civic Learning, Dialogue and Connection to Advance Health Equity Project – A Deliberative Approach, is building a democratic deliberative toolkit to convene racially, socioeconomically and geographically diverse Kansans and Missourians in a bi-state initiative to learn, discuss and weigh in on pressing population health challenges.
The first phase of this multi-year initiative is focused on building the deliberative toolkit. The toolkit will include:
- a deliberative model designed to address diversity, structural inequities and power imbalances;
- balanced, inclusive plain language briefing materials and case studies; and
- metrics that gauge knowledge, deliberative and civic gains attributable to the process.
Foundational funding for the project was provided in September 2021 by County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a program directed by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
