Community Leaders in Health Equity (CLHE) Evaluation

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CLHE program participants. Credit: © Julius Garrido, Studio MOD 2023

Out of a desire to work with communities across Colorado to facilitate dialog and action to advance health equity, The Colorado Trust created and trained a network of grassroots community members through the Community Leaders in Health Equity (CLHE) program. Individuals were recruited to participate in an 18-month, hands-on, immersive curriculum to develop health equity leaders in their communities. The leadership training curriculum was designed and implemented by Transformative Alliances LLC and was built on their past trainings and enhanced to emphasize health equity. The CLHE curriculum covered health equity topics and systems of oppression such as racism, classism, sexism, nationalism, and language oppression.

Out of a desire to continue supporting CLHE participants and nurturing their leadership skills, The Colorado Trust and Transformative Alliances developed the CLHE Continuing Track. The focus of this 24‑month track included gaining an understanding of different community organizing models, their history, and outcomes; developing workable plans for creating change; building relationships and support networks across levels of influence and power; organizing and facilitating community gatherings; and engaging and influencing policymakers.

A subsequent grant to Community Language Cooperative ensured quality translation and interpretation throughout the implementation of CLHE, given that language justice was an essential element of the program. Additional supports for implementing equity values and ensuring program accessibility included food, lodging, transportation support, childcare support, and economic harm offsets.
 

Developmental and Outcomes Evaluation

AIR conducted a developmental and outcomes evaluation of both CLHE and the Continuing Track to document program activities and concepts and to understand how participants engaged with the program and one another.

Short-term outcomes included:

1. An increase in participants' knowledge and awareness of health equity, social determinants of health, power, privilege, and oppression, and for the Continuing Track participants, an awareness of how to take action to address these issues; and
2. A bilingual, statewide network development of community health equity leaders.

Intermediate outcomes for both tracks included:

1. An increase in participants' sense of self-efficacy for action toward equity; and
2. An increased capacity to engage in community action toward equity.

The long-term anticipated outcome for the initiative was community progress toward health equity throughout Colorado.