Featured Resource: Health Equity Toolkit
By Dr. Jonathan A. Caballero, Strategic Operations Advisor
3-min read
As you know, The Center for Implementation strongly advocates for deeply considering equity whenever you support an implementation project.
However, we also know that understanding and integrating equity can be a challenge on its own, and some teams may find it difficult to find practical ways to do it.
The Health Equity Toolkit is an excellent resource to help your team get started and then take the consideration of equity to the next level.
Officially, it was designed to be “a comprehensive resource to help implementation scientists get started with health equity-focused implementation research.” It can be an excellent resource for implementation support professionals in any field, as it is user-friendly and provides pointers to many resources to continue the learning journey on equity and implementation.
About the toolkit
The toolkit was designed with professionals trained in Implementation Science in mind. It intends to provide an orientation about key concepts in health equity, and does so in a concise manner, complementing it with online resources, references, and practical empirical examples.
While the resources in the toolkit are focused on health equity, note that the conceptual introduction, resources, and examples can be informative for projects aiming to integrate equity into the implementation of evidence-based initiatives in other areas, as the general principles and concepts are relevant across contexts.
In this post, we will focus on the aspects of the toolkit that are the most relevant for implementation support practitioners in general (and course, if you are focusing on health equity you’ll appreciate the variety of topic-specific materials that the toolkit offers as well!)
Pick your own adventure
The guide is modular, meaning you can jump to the sections that are relevant to you. The authors recommend starting by reading the “brief orientation” section. From there, it is easy to pick your own adventure, by reading the sections in which you are the most interested.
If you are just getting started, you might want to take a look at the section introducing key language and concepts or getting acquainted with basic literature on the area.
If you are already familiar with equity concepts and implementation science frameworks, you may want to take a look at a selection of conceptual approaches and examples of how to complement well-known IS frameworks to consider equity.
Alternatively, depending on where you are in the process of planning and implementing your initiative, you may want to explore their sections on community and partner engagement, measurement and evaluation, or implementation trials, for example.
The path you want to take is totally up to you! By the way, you may also pick your preferred flavour, as the toolkit can be accessed on its web version or as a standalone PDF (downloadable from the toolkit’s homesite).
Generalize and complement
The toolkit inspires some thoughtful reflection on how you can apply the concepts and toolkit to your own implementation initiative. While many of the concepts and resources in the toolkit can be easily generalized, you may need to adapt some of them to fit your specific needs.
If you need some inspiration on how to complement the Health Equity Toolkit, don’t hesitate to take a look at the many resources on the topic of equity available in TCI’s toolbox, or to take a look at the recording of our workshop “Practical Guidance for Embodying Equity in Implementation”
We invite you to explore all that the Health Equity Toolkit has to offer.
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