To fulfill our mission and long-term ambitions, Center for Health Progress commits to championing policies and practices that promote health equity and combat the fact that race, income, ZIP code, and other social factors largely determine a person’s access to care and opportunities to live a healthy life. Health equity embodies the values, policies, and practices that work to eliminate health inequities and inequitable access to health care, especially for those who have historically faced health inequities based on race/ethnicity, age, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, poverty, geography, citizenship status, or religion.
Acknowledgements and Affirmations
To ensure collective understanding of health equity, we recognize that…
- Everyone deserves equal access to a full, vibrant life, which is essential to a healthy and just society. We believe working toward health equity and equitable access to health care is a necessary step toward achieving this vision.
- The health care system currently doesn’t work for all Coloradans because there are historical systems of power that grant privilege and access unequally to certain populations. These systems of power must be continuously addressed and changed.
- If the health care system is to be more accessible, high quality, cost less, and lead to better outcomes, health equity must be a driving source of improvement efforts.
- We must acknowledge and challenge our internal biases and work to hold each other accountable to personal growth. We also acknowledge everyone is starting from a different place on this journey and we will work to meet people where they are.
Modeling through Action
To provide informed, authentic leadership for health equity, we strive to…
- Model organizational culture change and share lessons learned by directly engaging in partnership with other organizations and learning with the broader health equity movement
- Pursue anti-oppression and deep understanding of our internal biases throughout our organization through substantive, ongoing learning and formal, transparent policies
- Through consulting with other organizations and experts, develop and implement internal policies, systems, programs, and services that actively promote equity and report organizational progress to our board, funders, members, and partners
- Commit time and resources to increasing leadership diversity within our board, staff, and membership bodies
Fueling Field Progress
To pursue needed systemic change related to health equity, we strive to…
- In partnership with the broader health equity movement, encourage learning to build understanding of our internal biases to promote pro-equity policies and practices throughout Colorado
- Improve the cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies, especially in our grassroots organizing program, that foster leadership that reflects the full breadth of Colorado’s demographics
- Advocate for community-based and generated quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress towards health equity more visible
- In our public policy advocacy and work to improve the systems that deliver health to Coloradans, actively utilize our equity policy assessment tool to ensure we support policies that promote health equity