Building Equity into Safer States
The Building Equity into Safer States resource was designed to help injury and violence prevention (IVP) organizations integrate health equity across the core components of a model IVP program. Developed for IVP professionals, funders, advocates, and diverse partners, this resource can be used to enhance and strengthen health equity leadership, partnerships, programs, and more. This resource serves as an update to the 2013 Building Safer States document and is designed to deepen understanding of equity approaches in state-led efforts and provide tools for enhancing IVP programs.
With nearly two decades of data and experience to draw upon since the core components were first created, Safe States has elevated six of the core components, integrating anti-racism, health equity, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles within each, as essential for an effective state IVP program:
- Build and sustain a solid, equitable, and stable infrastructure
- Equitably collect, analyze, and disseminate injury and violence data
- Select, implement, and evaluate effective program and equitable policy strategies
- Engage diverse partners for collaboration
- Effectively communicate culturally responsive information to key stakeholders
- Provide health equity training and technical assistance
In this document, the combination of core component descriptions, examples from state IVP programs, and insights about opportunities and challenges will provide a current snapshot of state IVP programs today — and where they can move in the future.
The Building Equity into Safer States document, along with previous Building Safer States documents, can be found on Safe States’ website: https://www.safestates.org/page/buildingsaferstates. For additional exploration, see the 6-part Building Equity into Safer States webinar series.
