Praxis Learning Center Topics 

Praxis’ training, technical assistance and capacity building is a cornerstone of our work to support communities building power for health justice. Praxis emphasizes institutional- and systemically-focused strategies that address the root causes of inequities. We utilize an intersectional framework, and center the dismantling of racism and other systems of oppression in our analysis and action. Praxis values authentic voices in all aspects of our training. When we design a training, it is often in collaboration with a community partner who has extensive practical experience in the training topics.

topics at-a-glance


CENTERING COMMUNITY IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Praxis is in a unique position to build bridges between community organizers and traditional public health institutions. Below includes our frequently offered trainings and technical assistance designed for local health departments, public health collaboratives and other agencies interested in increasing community- centered health equity and justice; we offer and provide additional trainings tailored to the needs of our partners.

1. Moving from Root Causes to Health

How Social Determinants Shape Our Lives. This training defines the root causes, or social determinants of health and guides participants through a facilitated discussion around the ways in which these root causes can lead to poor health outcomes.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions

2. ADVANCING HEALTH JUSTICE AND RACIAL EQUITY THROUGH POLICY, SYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE (PSE) STRATEGIES

Racial health disparities are a growing priority for public health organizations to address, yet we continue to see inequities increase. PSE strategies with an intentional focus on racial equity are a necessary approach to improve community conditions for health justice. This training provides concrete tools, techniques and examples to help practitioners better understand health disparities and design anti-racist PSE strategies that emphasize health equity for all.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

3. Meaningful Community Engagement for Health Justice

We know that engaging our community is important, yet we are often challenged with not gaining the trust of our community. How do we honor, respect, value, and leverage community wisdom for meaningful change in public health? Learn about Praxis’ Principles for Health Justice & Racial Equity, and identify opportunities to apply them to your organization’s community engagement approaches.

Audience: Public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

4. Leveraging Public Health to Support Civic Engagement

Local health departments and public health service agencies serve a critical, yet often untapped role in advancing civic engagement! Learn specific strategies that any client-facing organization can employ immediately to begin to build community power and civic engagement, creating the future we all deserve to see. 

Audience: Public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

5. Advancing Health Justice through Community-Affirming Soda Taxes

The Praxis Project was able to be deeply involved with Berkeley’s Measure D tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, and continues to inform soda taxes in CA and across the nation, in partnership with community organizers. Learn about how Berkeley became the first city in the US to successfully pass a community-affirming soda tax in 2014, and how your community can develop, pass, and implement non-regressive policy investments for health justice.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

6. Equitable Measurement of Community Power-Building

Authentic community engagement involves building power with our community partners and constituents through resource-distribution and capacity building. How can we include this component of measurement in our public health evaluations? Hear directly from community organizer perspectives on what needs to be prioritized when measuring successful community power-building.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.


Building Community Power

Using principles of popular education and other liberatory, people-centered pedagogy, Praxis supports communities’ efforts to improve health through changing the structural conditions that impact well-being. Praxis continues to offer a core set of training and capacity-building tools designed for advocates, organizers and public health to strengthen our approaches to health justice; we offer and provide additional trainings tailored to the needs of our partners.

1. Communicating for Health Justice & Racial Equity

How we communicate about health justice and racial equity is an important component to implementing these values and putting them into practice. This training supports participants in understanding the foundations of health justice and racial equity and how to incorporate strategies for communicating with a justice and equity lens. Participants will learn the theoretical foundations of health justice and be given tools to accurately communicate to different audiences through using conceptual frames that center a root cause framework.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

2. Moving Local Policy for Health Justice

How can you leverage your position as a public health professional or advocate at a non-profit, foundation, or government agency to advance local policy? Despite the conception that policy is untouchable if you work at a 501c3, that is not the case! Learn about the difference between education, advocacy and lobbying, and create a plan to move local policy to advance health justice in partnership with your community.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

3. Bridges for Health: Authentic Partnerships, Coalitions and Alliances to Achieve Health Justice

Building authentic relationships with partners is necessary for creating the policy, systems and environment changes to achieve health justice. Building trusting and reciprocal partnerships and alliances with requires intentionality. This training creates the space to outline the needs for your coalitions and develop a strategy to create mutual partnerships to advance a health equity agenda.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

4. From Racist Histories Anti-Racist Practices: Moving Towards Health Justice and Racial Equity

To be able to fully understand and confront the significant disparities impacting our nation’s black and brown communities, we first need to understand our history and what led us to this point. We provide a history of our nation or region’s racial legacy, and analyze present-day manifestations of racism. We then provide concrete tools and skills for shifting towards anti-racist practices in our work and communities.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

5. Advancing Health Equity and Justice through Data

Using data effectively can make your case for implementing equitable and just policies even stronger. This training emphasizes best practices for using data, including how to access specific types of commonly used data, basic data analytic skills, and data visualization techniques that make findings stand out.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

6. Base Building 101

Developing a “base” or support is critical for community organizing and policy advocacy. In this training, we provide an overview of base building, and facilitate activities to support strategy development for participants to build bases in their own community. We discuss key principles for authentic community engagement to be integrated throughout the base building process.

Audience: Advocates & organizers.

7. Power Mapping for Organizing and Advocacy

When seeking social change, it is essential to identify potential allies. Learn the ins and outs of power mapping, a tool to assess necessary partners and potential opposition to your specific organizing and advocacy efforts. Analyzing the power of community partners, institutions and constituents will support the success of health justice advocacy strategies.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

8. Popular Education for Community Engagement and Advocacy

Popular education is a people-centered educational approach that is integral to community organizing and engagement. Learn about the history of popular education—founded by Paolo Friere—the principles of its approach, and apply them to your advocacy work and related education.

Audience: Advocates. organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

9. Collaboration for Equity: Identifying and Working with Community Partners

This training uses an equity-focused social determinants of health approach to identify and invite traditional and non-traditional partners into collaborations, and uses Praxis' Principles for Health, Justice and Racial Equity to inform working relationships.

Audience: Advocates, organizers, public health, philanthropy, and allied professions.

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Tailored content can be developed to meet your needs. Submit an inquiry to start a dialogue on how the Praxis Learning Center can support your organization’s work to advance health justice and racial equity.