At a moment when public health faces unprecedented political, social and structural challenges, Health in Partnership (HIP) is demonstrating what it looks like to meet this moment with courage and collaboration. In the wake of growing threats to democracy and community power, HIP has been intentionally grounding its work in an assessment of the political terrain, recognizing that public health cannot advance equity and justice in isolation, or on authoritarian ground.

For 20 years, HIP has worked to advance a vision of public health that goes beyond individual behavior — one that focuses on equitable policies, practices and transforming the power structures and material conditions that shape health. This commitment is reflected in HIP’s 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, which articulates an ecosystem approach to change, bringing together governmental public health, non-governmental public health and community power-building organizations to move in alignment toward a shared purpose.

Through its Power-building Partnerships for Health (PPH) program, HIP supports local public health departments and grassroots community power-building organizations to build deep, trusting partnerships capable of creating lasting change in communities.

“The most powerful vehicle for transformative change in public health is partnership — especially partnerships with grassroots organizations rooted in community and social movements,” said Julian Drix, Bridging Partnerships and Strategies program director.

Public health should not operate in a vacuum. Decisions about housing, wages, community safety, environmental protection and access to care are too often made without the voices of the people who will be most affected by those policies. Governmental public health agencies bring data, authority and access to policymakers. Community-based organizations bring lived experience, organizing power and deep trust within communities. Together, they can build a force to bring about change on the issues that matter most to residents.

PPH put this belief into action through a cohort-based, 10-month program that supports teams made up of local health department staff and leaders from grassroots organizations. With four cohorts launched to date, these partnerships work together to strengthen relationships, align strategies, navigate political realities and advance community-driven policy and systems change.

Central to PPH is leveraging their inside-outside strategy to recognize that groups have different but complementary roles in advancing health equity. For example, public health agencies may face constraints on advocacy and political engagement, while community power-building organizations can organize, mobilize and push for bold change. PPH helps partners clarify roles, coordinate strategies and move in alignment toward those shared goals.

Through PPH, cohort participants gain much more than a connection. PPH provides:

• $25,000 in flexible funding for community power building
• Peer learning
• Site-specific coaching and technical assistance
• Dedicated time for relationship-building

This is not designed as a one-off project. It is an investment in long-term sustainability—helping partnerships create conditions that last well beyond the formal program.

A series of case stories highlight the PPH approach, including these examples:

New Orleans: Advancing Workers’ Health Through a Workers’ Bill of Rights

In New Orleans, a PPH partnership between the New Orleans Health Department and Step Up Louisiana, a grassroots organization that builds power to win education and economic justice for all, demonstrates the power of alignment across sectors.

Through the PPH cohort, partners created dedicated time and space to build trust, test ideas and coordinate strategies. Together, they advanced a Workers’ Bill of Rights that centers around health, including addressing workplace safety, access to health benefits and living wages as public health priorities. In the last election, more than 80% of voters in New Orleans approved the Workers’ Bill of Rights ballot initiative which is now built into the City Charter.

As a result of this collaboration, the New Orleans Health Department moved beyond traditional programming to play a more explicit role in shaping workplace policy. The department now certifies businesses that adopt the Workers’ Bill of Rights, embedding health equity directly into economic and labor policy.

For both partners, the value of PPH was clear: the health department gained deeper community connections and insight into worker priorities, while Step Up Louisiana benefited from policy expertise and institutional access. Together, they were able to frame messages effectively, engage elected officials and secure tangible wins for workers’ health.

St. Louis: Coordinating Power to Protect Health Equity

Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite tells the story of how tenants in St. Louis transformed a single complaint about unsafe housing into a powerful, citywide campaign for housing justice. Neighbors confronting a negligent landlord quickly revealed a broader pattern of unhealthy housing conditions affecting renters across the city. From that realization emerged Tenants Transforming Greater St. Louis (TTGSTL), a renter-led organization committed to shifting power and changing how housing code enforcement works to protect health and dignity for tenants.

Through support from the Power-building Partnerships for Health program and the Right to the City Alliance, TTGSTL partnered with the St. Louis Health Department to put an inside-outside strategy into action. By combining tenant stories with public health data, partners exposed deep racial and economic disparities in housing conditions and worked together to secure meaningful policy and administrative reforms. These efforts led to new protections such as mold and temperature safety ordinances, proactive inspections, renter notification and relocation assistance, that demonstrate how coordinated community leadership and public agency action can turn lived experience into lasting systems change.

“At the heart of Power-building Partnerships for Health is relationship-building by bringing the worlds of public health and social justice together. Trust is not a ‘nice to have’—it’s foundational to creating real, lasting change,” said Drix.

The most powerful vehicle for transformative change is not any single program or policy — it is the relationships that make lasting change possible, Drix said.

“If there was ever a time for public health and social justice movements to come together, it is now. The challenges we face with the rise of authoritarianism demand shared power and shared strategy,” said Jamie Sarfeh, director of communications at HIP.