What’s Included in this Toolkit?

There are six modules in this toolkit. Throughout the toolkit, resources and tools will be shared in various formats to raise awareness and understanding for organizations and clients regarding these six topic areas:

Module 1: Health Equity
Health Equity is defined as attaining the highest level of health for all people, regardless of cultural, demographic or socio-economic factors. The concepts of health equity and health disparity are inseparable in their practical implementation. Policies and practices aimed at promoting the goal of health equity will not immediately eliminate…
Read more
Module 2: Health Inequity
Health inequity is defined as differences in health between groups of people that are avoidable, unfair and unjust. They are affected by three factors: social, including race, gender, class, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc.; economic, including institutional systems of advantage and disadvantage, etc.; and environmental, including…
Read more
Module 3: Health Disparities & Social Determinants
Health disparities are the avoidable differences that result from cumulative social disadvantage, including health outcomes, health care access, coverage and quality of care between groups of people, etc. Health disparities are caused by a multitude of systemic factors often referred to as social determinants of health,…
Read more

Module 4: Health Literacy
Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. To understand health literacy, language and linguistic competence must initially be considered. Language can be defined as the…
Read more
Module 5: Cultural and Linguistic Literacy
Cultural literacy is the ability to understand the traditions, norms, activities and historical background of a given culture. Cultural literacy also involves the ability to participate fluently in formal and informal traditions, norms and activities. Cross-cultural communication problems and gaps in cultural literacy may cause…
Read more
Module 6: Racial Equity & Social Justice
Racial equity is a process of eliminating racial disparities and improving outcomes for everyone. It is the intentional and continual practice of changing policies, practices, systems and structures by prioritizing measurable change in the lives of people of color. Racial equity involves focusing on and understanding how racial distinctions…
Read more

The modules of the toolkit are further divided into four steps an organization or individual can take to improve their knowledge, awareness and engagement.

Step 1: Let’s Get Started

This step will briefly introduce the module topic and provide specific objectives that will move you closer to your goals.

Step 2: Time to Engage

This step will share a general introduction to the module topic. The information in this step is accessible, which means that you can listen to a podcast on your morning walk, download a resource to help your client or get a short audio summary of an article that caught your eye before fully engaging with reading materials.

Step 3: Creating a Stronger Foundation

This step includes a list of materials and resources designed to give you a more detailed description of the application of the tools introduced in Step 2. This step requires you to engage in deeper analysis of the topic through documentaries, research articles, trainings and books. Some of the tools (e.g., research articles, books) in this step may have a cost attached and we recommend that your organization provides these tools and shares them with other team members. These tools may require you to engage for longer periods of time (e.g., trainings) than initial resources.

Step 4: Your Turn

This step encourages you to apply what you have learned through a case vignette. We recommend that you explore the gaps present within the vignette and implement any new skills acquired through this module. We encourage you to consult with others on your team given that there are multiple ways to go about addressing a case vignette especially as you take your role within your organization and your experience, skills and worldview into account. We provide reflection questions from the following perspectives: individual learning and beliefs, organizational learning and systemic. You can use the questions to have discussions with others and think through all the facets of the case vignette that are relevant to your work.