NASTAD is a leading non-partisan non-profit association that represents public health officials who administer HIV and hepatitis programs in the U.S. We work to advance the health and dignity of people living with and impacted by HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and intersecting epidemics by strengthening governmental public health through advocacy, capacity building, and social justice.
Each of NASTAD’s seven programmatic teams—Health Care Access, Health Systems Integration, Policy & Legislative Affairs, Hepatitis, Prevention, Health Equity, and Drug User Health—interpret and influence policies, conduct trainings, offer technical assistance, and provide advocacy mobilization for U.S. health departments to improve health outcomes for people living with HIV and hepatitis.
Formed in July 2020, NASTAD’s Anti-racism in Public Health Subcommittee (ARPH) relies on the expertise and experience of NASTAD’s membership to operationalize concrete actions, with a primary focus on internal accountability, diversity, equity, and inclusion, to dismantle the systems of oppression that fuel racial disparities in access and outcomes in HIV, hepatitis, and drug user health programming within health departments and within NASTAD’s program areas. The ARPH is comprised of health department staff from NASTAD’s membership jurisdictions, including board and non-board members.
The purpose of the Advancing Organizational Equity (AOE) Toolkit is to compile and disseminate the experiences and promising practices from jurisdictions operationalizing equity principles and frameworks to increase organizational capacity to address internal inequities (e.g., hiring and retention, creating internal equity groups, providing high impact, on-going equity training to staff). The AOE Toolkit: (1) Provides tangible strategies to assist EHE and NASTAD member jurisdictions with implementation of equity principles and frameworks within their agencies; (2) Provides specific guidance for operationalizing equity concepts and frameworks for EHE and NASTAD member jurisdictions; and (3) Provides technical assistance resources to health department staff receiving limited support to operationalize organizational equity work.
NASTAD encourages readers of the AOE Toolkit to use this resource to:
- Adopt initiatives within the AOE Toolkit by sharing these promising practices with senior leadership, key decision makers, and existing equity workgroups within your jurisdiction.
- Connect with peers with similar equity implementation challenges to share promising practices.
- Incorporate additional support mechanisms for people, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals leading equity work within your jurisdiction.
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