Health Literate Workforce Development

How does your organization cultivate a strong, diverse workforce? How does your organization maintain, support, and retain qualified team members? Explore these questions and more below.

Ways to Get Started:

• Review Focus Area #2 in the toolkit beginning on page 31. Download Advancing Organizational Health Literacy (English | Spanish | screen-reader-friendly version).
• Take the self-assessment for Focus Area #2 beginning on page 5. Download Organizational Health Literacy Assessment (English | Spanish).
• Continue exploring the resources below.

Activities and Worksheets

Explore these resources related to leadership and organizational transformation:

• Setting New Team Members Up for Success (English | Spanish)
• Supporting Staff with Professional Development (English | Spanish)

Additional Resources

Inclusive and Equitable Workspaces

• American Heart Association CEO Roundtable: Driving Health Equity in the Workplace (PDF) – Report highlighting reasons and strategies for integrating a health equity lens into health institutions
• Association for Women in Science: Fighting Gender Bias  – Varied resources on how gender bias harms workplaces
• Harvard University: Project Implicit  – A series of online tests part of a Harvard study that explores implicit bias in various areas
• National Hispanic Health Foundation: Increasing Organizational Diversity: A Digital Recruitment and Retention Guide for Public Health Officials (PDF) – Varied resources on the benefits of a diverse workforce
• World Health Organization: Value Gender and Equity in the Global Health Workforce : Resources on disparities in health and care roles

Public Health + Health Literacy Professional Communities

• American Public Health Association – Leading national public health membership association
• Illinois Community Health Workers Association – Statewide membership organization for community health workers
• Illinois Public Health Association – Illinois affiliate of the American Public Health Association
• Institute for Healthcare Advancement – Health literacy focused organization that offers annual conference, health literacy listserv and other learning opportunities
• Literacy Works’ Clear Language Lab: Community of Practice – Free virtual meet-ups every other month around equitable communication across social determinants of health areas 

Workforce Development in Public Health

• de Beaumont Foundation’s National Consortium for Public Health Workforce Development – Resources on strengthening the public health field 
• Illinois Department of Public Health Community Health Worker Resources – Information on the community health field in Illinois including training, updates, and surveys
• McKinsey and Company: Building the US Public-Health Workforce of the Future – 2022 article describing key suggestions to strengthen the field