04/9/2025
Media Contact: Yolanda Harris
Email: [email protected] , 312-465-6438
FOREST PARK, IL – Today, on day three of National Public Health Week, Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) announced the launch of an organizational health literacy toolkit, online resource hub, and webinar to help people who work in public health, government, schools, social services, and health care make health information and services easier for their clients to find, understand, and use.
“As part of our mission to advance health equity, we are committed to supporting organizations in their journeys to becoming more health-literate. We are excited to offer a jargon-free communication toolkit for community partners to use to discuss public health, health equity and the social and structural determinants of health,” said CCDPH Interim Chief Operating Officer Dr. Kiran Joshi.
The 90-page Advancing Organizational Health Literacy Toolkit provides an introduction to organizational health literacy. Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to access health information and services and ultimately, make the best decisions for themselves.
Examples of how organizations can apply a health literacy framework include: making services and programs easy to find and use, communicating effectively with people from all walks of life and reaching priority communities through meaningful outreach.
The toolkit contains organizational health literacy tips and tools divided into six focus areas that align with CCDPH’s vision for building a health-literate public health system, including: leadership and organizational transformation, health literate workforce development, partnerships and intersectoral collaboration, accessibility of information and services, communication practices and standards, community engagement and outreach.
The toolkit is now available to download in English, and will soon be available in Spanish, at healthliteratecookcounty.org, an online resource hub that also includes an assessment tool for organizations to reflect on how well they’re doing with health literacy and areas where they can grow and improve. The hub also includes a wide assortment of supplementary companion materials in each of the toolkit’s six focus areas.
CCDPH is hosting a free webinar on the toolkit on April 24, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. CST. Dr. Darcie Moeller, CCDPH Health Equity medical director, and Melanie Sampson, Literacy Works Clear Language Lab program director, will introduce participants to organizational health literacy, the toolkit, online resource hub, assessment, and supplementary materials. Registration is now open. For more information and to register, visit: bit.ly/3QW8JmX .
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Cook County Department of Public Health, an affiliate of Cook County Health, is a nationally accredited, state-certified local health department that enforces health regulations, monitors and responds to public health threats and promotes better health in suburban Cook County.