Collaborations

We are well-connected to each other, to our national partners, and to the expertise needed to support the public health workforce on a local and national basis.

The Public Health Learning Agenda for Systems Change

Today’s workforce development models (and many trainings) do not address systems change in the community. Rather, they focus on how to improve individual skills and knowledge to do a particular job or task. While this is important, these trainings don’t create a workforce and network of partners who, together, are equipped to address the root challenges of public health today.

Developed by the Public Health Training Center Network (Regions 1, 4, 5, 8 and 10) — in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Policy, Practice, and Prevention Research Center — the Learning Agenda is designed to help public health teams use learning to achieve a vision of healthy, thriving communities.

The goal of the Learning Agenda is to help public health organizations, their partners, and communities use transformative learning as a driver for systems change. Read more about the Learning Agenda and its core components:

The Learning Agenda Manuscript
The Conceptual Learning Framework, including the six steps of the Learning Agenda
Results of the pilot test of the Learning Agenda in the Journal for Public Health Management and Practice
Other tools and worksheets
Coming soon: a short video about the Learning Agenda

Racial Justice Competencies for Public Health Professionals

The PHTCN, in partnership with NNPHI, has developed a set of Racial Justice Competencies for Public Health Professionals that can be used in developing racial justice education training. This is consistent with agencies across the country declaring racism a public health issue, and expressing interest in ongoing health equity and racial justice training.

Process:

Create a competency library of more than 650 statements from existing competency models related to race and equity
Enlist an expert panel of 35 public health professionals to identify, modify, and categorize competencies
Build draft models
Validate via surveys, town halls, and pilot testing
Finalize and disseminate

Components:

The RJCM now contains 51 total statements (17 introductory, 17 intermediate, 17 leading) – across the following domains:

Assessment
Policy Development
Assurance

All are aligned with the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals and the 10 Essential Public Health Services.