2017 Health Equity Awards - Arnold Perkins Winner - Monterey

Since 2012, Monterey County Health Department (MCHD) has been using Health in All Policies (HiAP) framework with a Collective Impact approach to intentionally expand upstream work on social determinants, including staffing and funding support for a department ‘backbone’. MCHD developed a stronger county-wide commitment to health equity both within the department and outside with stakeholders by using five key HiAP elements:
1. Promoting incorporation of HiAP into policies, programs, and processes and embedding HIAP into government decision making;
2. Fostering intersectoral collaboration;
3. Creating co-benefits;
4. Engaging stakeholders; and
5. Creating structural change.
HiAP has been a catalyzing force for partnership development with community residents, coalitions and community-based organizations across public works, housing, transportation, and community empowerment. Their work has led to strategic wins - like the County adopting “promoting access to equitable opportunities for healthy choices and healthy environments in collaboration with communities” as a priority in its 2017-2018 Legislative Platform - as well as the building of power in communities facing inequities through, for example, the enLACE Leadership and Civic Engagement Academy.