Concurrent Breakout Sessions IV

Article June 29, 2015 Read time:

Projects: Health Impact

HIA 101: Getting Out of the Weeds: Using Marketing and Communications to Advance the HIA Reporting Process

Overview:

An expert media and communications consultant will present perspectives on how to capture the essential messages in an HIA report and repackage them into engaging, easily digestible resources that tell an HIA’s story. Attendees will gain knowledge of principles from areas such as business marketing, communications, and graphic design that can help them approach the HIA reporting process with an eye toward creating dynamic reports and other materials.

Presentation:

Fran Kritz, Home Front Communications

HIA with and within Indigenous Populations

Overview:

In this session, three presenters will share about their experiences conducting HIAs addressing the potential health impacts of proposed land and resource use changes on indigenous populations and land-based cultures, and share some of the findings about unique ways in which health in these populations is impacted by historical and ongoing colonization. The panel will also discuss beneficial impacts that resulted from community engagement in identifying and addressing these research findings.

Presentations:

Murray Lee, Habitat Health Impact Consulting

Dario Maciel, Human Impact Partners

Maile Taualii, University of Hawaii

Approaches to Operationalize Health in All Policies

Overview:

While there are many ways to operationalize Health in All Policies, structured processes and tools can help guide implementation; HIA is one such tool that can be used to incorporate health considerations into decision making. Participants in this session will hear about three examples of efforts by organizations and agencies to routinize health in decision making; case studies are from the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, Sustainable Jersey, and the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Moderator:

Tatiana Lin, Kansas Health Institute

Presentations:

Rochelle Carpenter, Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization

Donna Drewes, Sustainability Institute at the College of New Jersey

Lauren Gase, Los Angeles Department of Public Health

Tatiana Lin, Kansas Health Institute

HIA and Comprehensive Planning in Rural Settings

Overview:

The MountainElements HIA—an initiative of North Carolina’s Community Transformation Grant project—has allowed an eight-county, rural Appalachian region to articulate the health impacts of planning and built environment policy to help the region integrate health into comprehensive plans, identify policy gaps, and prepare the region for a healthier future. MountainElements’ holistic approach to integrated health and planning has introduced new health themes to the planning process. The final report generated a rural Appalachian perspective in a policy gap analysis and a hot spot analysis to identify pockets of concentrated rural health disparity. The MountainElements HIA has also strengthened capacity in the region for better integration of rural local public health needs into comprehensive planning, as well as transportation planning, parks/recreation/open space planning, and economic development strategies.

Presentations:

Chris Danley, Vitruvian Planning

Don Kostelec, Kostelec Planning

Sarah Tennyson, MountainWise

HIA and Community Development in Massachusetts

Overview:

This session will describe three community development-related HIAs: the Oasis on Ballou HIA, the Healthy Neighborhood Equity Fund HIA, and the Community Investment Tax Credit HIA. This session will also describe several products that came from the Community Investment Tax Credit HIA, and a discussion of their lessons learned and how the information from these projects are being applied in new ways. Finally, presenters will include discussion opportunities for integrating the work of community developers into health care reform, community benefits, and making the case for hospitals moving toward investment in the social determinants of health.

Presentations:

Noémie Sportiche, Metropolitan Area Planning Commission

Ben Wood, Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Equity Metrics for Use in HIA Practice

Overview:

In this session, three panelists will introduce and discuss equity metrics. Participants will hear about the metrics and the process by which they were developed; how previous HIAs have scored and how the metrics could be used to improve HIA practice; and thoughts from the community perspective on how an HIA in Wisconsin would score against the metrics, and insights from community organizing to HIA practitioners looking to improve their focus on equity.

Presentations:

Kim Gilhuly, Human Impact Partners

Jonathan Heller, Human Impact Partners

David Liners, WISDOM

Applying HIA to Natural Disaster Planning: Lessons from the Field

Overview:

There has been limited application of HIAs to the development of plans that guide post-disaster recovery and resilience efforts. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the New Jersey-New York region, causing widespread power outages that lasted for days and weeks and damaged significant elements of the state’s transportation, communication, energy, and water systems. The panel will share insights and lessons learned from their experience assessing opportunities to integrate HIA into preplanning for natural disasters.

Presentations:

Jon Carnegie, Rutgers University

Karen Lowrie, Rutgers University

James Mitchell, Rutgers University

The Importance of Community Engagement in Environmental Planning Decisions

Overview:

Participants in this session will hear lessons learned about three HIAs: the Minnesota Pollution Control “Green Zone” HIA, the Institute on Social Exclusion’s HIA to inform the decommissioning of two coal plants in two Chicago communities, and the North Birmingham Community Plan Rapid HIA of the first-ever community plan for an environmental justice community in Birmingham, Alabama.