Exploring Health Equity: How Our Communities Shape Our Well-being (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: We each have our own history and unique story. The people around us have their own stories and histories. Together, our unique stories and histories shape our world. What you might not realize is that our world also shapes us and shapes our health. Together, our environment and our neighbors make up our community and the fabric of our lives. What would we see if we looked closer at our community and the communities around us? What if we looked just below the foundation, at the roots? Throughout history, some communities have received less than others. Still today, things like housing, income, education, and our sense of belonging in society are not the same in every community or for every person. Yet, they directly benefit or hurt our health. But how do these things affect health? Let's take a closer look. Some people live in communities where they have fewer opportunities for better education, fresh food, safe housing, or jobs that pay enough to meet their basic needs. Each person's health depends on their living and working conditions, as well as the resources available to them. Where we live and work and the types of resources we have access to are interconnected, often overlap, and vary within and across communities based on the history, culture, norms, attitudes, behaviors, and lived experiences of people. When we begin to understand that our communities impact our health and we pay attention to the world around us, we start to ask questions. We may start to wonder, what if? What if we could start at the root by investing in our neighborhoods, communities, and larger society? Could we create a world where everyone has the same opportunity to be healthy? Even if it doesn't always seem like it, we have the power to shape the world we live in. We can make things different and better and fair for everyone. We can create health equity. Health equity is the opportunity for all people to be able to attain their highest level of health, regardless of where they live or their personal stories. Addressing health issues at the individual level is not enough. It is far more powerful when we help everyone in a community at once by making changes that affect their physical, built, social, and policy environments. To achieve health equity, we rely on connecting science, policy, and practice to put real change into place. That's where public health can play a major role in helping to achieve health equity. When public health champions work collaboratively with those of housing, transportation, and education, we can move towards creating fair and equitable opportunities for everyone to be healthy. Health equity begins to happen when people in communities engage with one another and explore policies, programs, initiatives, and services that are centered on their shared problems and successes. With the right collaborations and initiatives, we can create a society where all people are healthier, safer, and able to play, grow, learn, and live in places that promote good health. It takes all of us to show up, to have conversations, to decide what resources we need and what actions we can and should take to achieve health equity. Learn more. Take action. Make a difference. Visit cdc.gov slash health equity to learn more.