General Strategies

The following are strategies from the National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity.

• Blog or tweet about health disparities in your community or share information via Facebook
• Contact the media with stories about health disparities in your community
  
• Write a letter to the editor or an opinion-article for your local newspaper
  
• Speak at health fairs, PTA and school board meetings, civic meetings, faith-based events, and other community gatherings
  

• Educate others about disparities and share stories about model programs with local organizations or community leaders, and the National Partnership for Action (NPA)
• Start a petition to get local citizens to support policy recommendations and submit the petition to the appropriate elected officials
  
• Organize a meeting of local organizations representing diverse sectors and work together to ensure health disparities is on the local and state health agenda
  
• Form coalitions with local organizations representing diverse sectors and leaders from different racial, ethnic, and other groups affected by health disparities to address common barriers and to join the NPA
  
• Serve as a mentor to a young person in your family, neighborhood, or community
  
  • Educate him/her on the issues, encourage him/her to make healthy lifestyle choices, and guide him/ her to resources
    

• Be a role model and serve nutritious foods at work or social functions
• Involve your employees in a group physical activity or challenge
  
  • Participate in National Health Observances — such as AIDS Awareness Days — by sponsoring local health events or encouraging loved ones and colleagues to take action to address their health
    
• Host seminars in your local library, school, workplace, or other venue to discuss health disparities in your community
  
  • Topics could include reducing asthma triggers in the home, managing obesity and chronic illnesses, or how to enroll in public health insurance programs
    

• Partner with a local health care provider or employer to offer free health screenings in your workplace or place of worship
• Ask local health care providers to translate health and health care information or connect them to an individual or organization who can provide translation services
  
• Establish a Community Health Worker or Promotoras de Salud program in your community
  

• Advocate for more sidewalks, bike lanes, and recreation facilities in your neighborhood
• Encourage local schools, workplaces, and assisted living facilities to provide healthier lunch and snack options
  
• Ask your neighborhood supermarket to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to the local foodbank, ask local restaurants to provide healthy menu options, or organize a farmers’ market that accepts food stamps
  
• Work with your local government and organizations in your community to collect and to track data about health disparities and monitor changes over time