Applications for the 2020 Health Equity Cohort are now open! Join us in Lowell for three trainings that will bring together public health professionals and stakeholders from across the region working to promote health equity. 

The team at the Training Institute will be reviewing these applications and extending an invitation to 45 applicants. We will select participants for this cohort keeping the following considerations in mind:

• Ability to attend all sessions (requirement)
• Need and readiness for this content area
• Cohort demographics: race/ethnicity, gender, geographic location (within MA), etc.

Applications will be accepted until January 8, 2020. We will notify those selected for the cohort and those that have been added to the waitlist by February 4, 2020. For questions, please email Kelly Danckert at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Apply here!

The Health Equity Cohort will be facilitated by Mo Barbosa and Natalie Cashin from Health Resources in Action. 

Cohort Training 1: Unpacking Our Biases to Promote Public Health 

Topics: Defining health equity; defining strategies to be anti-racist; strategies for addressing biases

In-person (4 hours)

Description: Before we can be a helpful accomplice in health equity and racial justice, we need to first do the self-work needed to unpack our own biases. How does power play into the health equity work we do? Before we can consider ourselves accomplices, we need to ensure we are coming with our whole selves. The training will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to be able to recognize their own biases, what their biases are rooted in, and how they can overcome them. And then on a larger scale, we will discuss how unpacking our biases can promote a culture of health equity. When we begin to disrupt the systems that have continued to perpetuate health inequities across systems, we are able to promote healthier more just strategies in our work. 

Cohort Training 2: Health Equity Then and Now

Topics: Overview of social determinants of health and their role in shaping communities, public health workforce skills

Online Training (1.5 hrs)

Description: Public health is a field that is constantly changing and evolving. What does that mean for community coalitions and members? What skills do we need, and how can we build up our toolbox to ensure that community coalition leaders and members are prepared to handle the changing landscape? This training will go over a brief history of health equity work from the progress we have made to the challenges we still need to overcome. Trainers will provide participants with the tools, resources, and knowledge to feel prepared to tackle today’s health equity issues and issues on the horizon.

Cohort Training 3: Addressing White Fragility 

Topics: Overview of the history of race-based inequities and the systems that perpetuate them, cultural humility skill building, and tools for addressing inequities in the community

In-person cohort (4 hrs)

When talking about healthy equity and racial equity, it is important to address the barriers that can prevent us from truly engaging in the work. This means we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and addressing a phenomenon that sociologists call “white fragility.” How can we pull back the veil on the pillars of whiteness to start redefining how we talk about race as a whole? This training will provide questions, activities, reflections and sharing opportunities to help participants find, in their own stories and experiences, ways in which they have upheld and reinforced inequitable systems. Then, together, we will begin the work of undoing this narrative and go over skills and tools we can use to dismantle the systems that perpetuate health inequities.