Addressing Systemic Inequities: An Evaluation of the Resilience Catalysts in Public Health Program

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Equity
• Community Resilience

Background:

• Resilience Catalysts (RC) is a program supporting local health departments (LHDs) in operationalizing the Community Health Strategist (CHS) role.
• RC aims to foster equity and community resilience through multi-sector policy, practice, and program changes.
• The program provides a structured process and technical assistance (TA) to LHDs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify essential elements of the RC process and TA that enable LHDs to address systemic drivers of adversity and inequity.
• To expand understanding of RC's preliminary impact on theory, practice, and funding in the post-COVID era.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods evaluation utilizing online surveys and semi-structured interviews.
• Framework analysis, constant comparison analysis, and descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis.
• The study included 12 diverse US cities and counties, with 29 survey and 33 interview participants.

Main Results:

• Evaluation outcomes show enhanced community engagement and expansion of system-level thinking among LHDs.
• RC demonstrated success in advancing health and racial equity, clarifying the RC process, and building capacity for the CHS role.
• Participants reported increased knowledge and skills to address root causes of adversity and inequity.

Conclusions:

• The RC process effectively prepared LHDs to operationalize the CHS role by building essential knowledge and skills.
• RC facilitates understanding of adversity's root causes, addresses structural racism in public health, and supports collaborative action planning.
• The findings have implications for public health practice, theory, and funding strategies.