Design Labs
Building a National Learning Community
The purpose of the Design Laboratories are to help build capacity of the PLACE MATTERS Teams; to identify and share the most effective disparities reduction strategies and to refine the legal, policy and grassroots mobilization strategy of the proposed Fair Health movement. The goals of these design laboratories include:
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To explore the critical lessons of the fair housing and education movements that may have direct relevance to a successful "Fair Health" movement.
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To clarify existing civil and human rights laws and administrative procedures that can be utilized.
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To examine barriers to the effective engagement of federal healthcare financing agencies and the Office of Civil Rights and make specific recommendations for overcoming these barriers.
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To review proposed healthcare systems reform legislation and explore opportunities for amendments that will expedite progress in reducing health disparities.
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To examine related state and local laws, statutes and mobilization efforts.
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To produce a fair health manual and design a related dissemination and education strategy.
Lab Descriptions by Category
Place Matters Design and Implementation
These Labs include HPI's first design lab meeting held in Reston, Virginia in 2006, followed by three meetings held over the course of the year. The primary focus of these four meetings was to introduce the teams to the purpose and goals of the intiative, build the capacity of the 16 teams to address Social Determinants of Health, and to build a shared learning community.
These meetings were focused on developing and sharing team logic models, along with an introduction to the PM evaluation. Presentations for these meetings covered reports on the growing epidemic of obesity in Mississippi, post Katrina Highlights, and team logic model presentations.
These Labs focused on exploring relationships among race, racism, and health inequities and strategies to address and mitigate structural racism.
These Labs continued to build the capacity of teams to explore Social Determinants of Health and issues such as poverty and the intersections between economy and health.
These Labs provided the teams with tools to effectively reach out to the media and elected officials to promote health equity.
