Background
The California Health in All Policies (HiAP) Task Force is thrilled to announce its relaunch for 2022, with a renewed membership and emphasis on advancing racial equity! The HiAP Task Force, established in 2010 under Executive Order S-04-10, is a partnership between the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC), Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the non-profit, Public Health Institute (PHI). Through quarterly meetings, the HiAP Task Force brings together over 20 state agencies and departments to discuss and develop strategies to guide state government to better advance health, racial equity, and sustainability in California.
Since the last HiAP Task Force quarterly meeting in January 2020, human health and racial equity have taken center stage across California and the world. COVID-19, worsening climate emergencies, growing disparities in income and access to opportunities, and race-based injustices are a few among many persisting health imperatives we are facing today. Communities of color, indigenous populations, and low-income groups bear the greatest burden of these health challenges due to systemic and institutional injustices that prevent opportunity for all. For example, the COVID-19 death rate for Black and Latino communities in California remains 16-17% higher than statewide; for Pacific Islanders, community case rates are 75% higher than statewide (California for All – COVID-19).
HiAP and Racial Equity
Given the changing landscape of health, racial equity, and sustainability, we have relaunched the HiAP Task Force with a new approach. On February 17, 2022, the HiAP Task Force reconvened nearly 50 staff from California State agencies and departments to build on recent input from stakeholders urging State government to redirect its cross-sectoral convening capacity to address the structural barriers that many Californians face to access healthy, racially just, and resilient communities.
As we relaunch this decade-long effort toward government transformation, the HiAP Task Force has heard from stakeholders and partners alike that a HiAP approach in California must start with, prioritize, and embody racial equity.
In the last year-and-a-half, California’s State HiAP network has held virtual meetings to build supportive connections around current events impacting health and equity outcomes. In May 2020, the HiAP Task Force held a special meeting in response to the emerging pandemic to provide a venue for HiAP practitioners to better comprehend the inequitable impacts of COVID-19 and learn from departments about their response efforts. In September 2021, building on key concepts that undergird the Capitol Collaborative on Race & Equity, the HiAP Task Force convened nearly 200 State government staff to explore connections, opportunities, and challenges for California state government to further its racial equity approach through a HiAP lens.
Through a stakeholder engagement process hosted by SGC, in partnership with the UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute in 2021, stakeholders across California identified various structural barriers to advancing health and racial equity. These barriers were transformed into proposed strategic goals for the Task Force. Learn more about the multi-phase stakeholder engagement process carried out in 2020 and 2021 that will inform future Task Force work.
In 2022, the HiAP Task Force will convene staff representing the following California State agencies and departments:
- Air Resources Board
- Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency
- Community Services Department
- Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
- Department of Education
- Department of Finance
- Department of Food and Agriculture
- Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
- Department of General Services
- Department of Housing and Community Development
- Department of Parks and Recreation
- Department of Public Health
- Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery
- Department of Social Services
- Department of Transportation
- Energy Commission
- Environmental Protection Agency
- First 5 California
- Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
- Governor’s Office of Planning & Research
- Health and Human Services Agency
- Housing Finance Agency
- Mental Health Services Oversight Commission
- Natural Resources Agency
- Office of the Surgeon General
- Public Utilities Commission
- State Water Resources Control Board
- Transportation Commission
- Workforce Development Board
With renewed membership and capacity, the HiAP Task Force will center racial equity in our efforts to transform and better coordinate California State government to advance health, equity, and sustainability. Read more about the HiAP Task Force or email HiAP@sgc.ca.gov.