Linda Gordon, Associate Director of The Center for Health Equity Practice and MPHI Project Director of the STRETCH initiative, recently gave a presentation at the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) annual conference. The presentation was titled “STRETCH 2.0: A Pathway for Advancing Equity through Public Health Systems Transformation.” Gordon led the submission for the presentation and was joined by two STRETCH team members from the Initiative’s partner organizations – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation (CDC Foundation), and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).
STRETCH refers to an ongoing initiative seeking to advance health equity by implementing an action-oriented framework designed to transform governmental public health. This collaborative effort is being implemented by 3 MPHI Centers (CHEP, CHC, & CDMTR) in partnership with the CDC Foundation and ASTHO. According to the CDC Foundation, “The Strategies to Repair Equity and Transform Community Health (STRETCH) Initiative works to strengthen the foundational relationships imperative to ensuring all members of the community can thrive and improve the structures and processes needed to advance equity in public health.”
The first round of the Initiative worked to transform public health practice by offering a responsive capacity building program to teams from 10 State Health Agencies (SHAs). The second iteration of the project, STRETCH 2.0, is using the lessons learned from STRETCH 1.0 to expand the work to 7 collaboratives comprised of staff from SHAs and community-based organizations across the country. Linda Gordon’s presentation highlighted these lessons, including the evolution of the STRETCH framework and cross-cutting strategies that can be integrated into all public health domains to advance equity. A primary objective of the Initiative is to translate the lessons learned into guidance for broader public health practice.
“STRETCH 2.0 centers an equity-driven systems change model, that supports governmental public health professionals build the knowledge, skills, and capacity to shift the conditions that hold longstanding inequities in place by addressing their root causes – e.g., structural racism.” said Linda Gordon.
For more information on the STRETCH Initiative and the NNPHI Conference, visit:
[[Strategies to Repair Equity and Transform Community Health (STRETCH) Initiative | CDC Foundation]](previously linked to: https://www.cdcfoundation.org/programs/stretch)
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