Introduction

Examining the ways communities across the U.S. are working to improve health for all, Health Is a Human Right: Achieving Health Equity focuses on “good news wins.”

In 2013-14, the CDC Museum organized Health Is a Human Right: Race and Place in America, which explored some of the historic conditions of the past 120 years that contribute to the health disparities we see among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. today. In this current version, we acknowledge that the only way everyone will have a fair opportunity to achieve their best health is to address the harms of the past while also looking ahead to what is possible.

We look at models of “communities of practice”—how individuals, nonprofits, and local, state, tribal, and federal governments are reframing both problems and solutions to make sustainable differences. Through a health justice lens, we examine grassroots and government efforts to address some uncomfortable trends and conditions, such as maternal morbidity and mortality disparities among communities of color or violence in Indigenous communities. We see how faith leaders across the U.S. are preventing tobacco use and HIV. And we tell stories about the growing momentum +++of the community health workers movement and innovative strategies to improve worker safety. 

These examples are representative of larger efforts across the U.S. to achieve health equity. We hope these stories provide inspiration to further this work.