What a Campaign Could Look Like
Health fairness does not happen on its own.
It happens when communities name what is wrong, show who is being harmed, and push for the decisions that can make care more just, accessible, and humane.
People’s Health Project helps communities turn lived experience into public evidence and public action.
Every Campaign Starts With a Few Questions
A health fairness issue becomes more powerful when the community can clearly name the problem, the decision at stake, and the people with the ability to act.
1. What is happening?
What barrier, service gap, condition, or policy is affecting people’s health?
2. Who is being affected?
Which people, families, workers, patients, students, or neighborhoods are carrying the burden?
3. What needs to change?
What decision, policy, service, funding choice, or institutional practice could improve the situation?
4. Who could help?
Which residents, organizations, workers, advocates, or other partners could strengthen the effort?
5. Who has the power to act?
Which institution, agency, board, health system, insurer, school district, or public official can make or influence the decision?
6. What action could move the issue forward?
How could evidence, public participation, and direct engagement build support for change?
EXAMPLE CAMPAIGNS
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A hospital, clinic, or maternity service is closing or reducing services in a community that already has limited access to care.
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Families may have to travel farther for emergency care, prenatal visits, prescriptions, dialysis, behavioral health care, or chronic disease management.
For residents without reliable transportation, paid time off, or nearby alternatives, this can mean delayed care, missed treatment, and greater risk.
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Whether essential health services are closed, reduced, replaced, or protected in a way that preserves access for the people most affected.
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Health system leaders, clinic administrators, public agencies, local officials, state regulators, transportation agencies, and community partners.
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Pause the closure. Hold a public listening session. Complete a health equity impact review. Restore key services. Expand transportation support. Create a meaningful alternative such as mobile care or local referral partnerships.
Keeping Care
Close to Home
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People have health insurance, including Medicaid or other coverage, but still cannot get timely, appropriate care.
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Patients may face long wait times, provider shortages, transportation barriers, language barriers, confusing referral systems, or repeated appointment denials.
Coverage may exist on paper, while care remains out of reach.
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Whether health plans, agencies, and provider networks ensure that coverage leads to real access.
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Health plans, Medicaid agencies, insurance regulators, provider networks, clinic systems, transportation providers, language access services, and public officials.
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Improve appointment availability. Strengthen provider networks. Publish wait-time information. Expand transportation support. Improve language access. Simplify referrals. Require health plans to help patients secure timely appointments.
Making Coverage
Count
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A community loses access to preventive health services such as mobile screenings, vaccination clinics, maternal health outreach, chronic disease prevention programs, or community health workers.
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People may miss early screenings, routine vaccinations, prenatal support, blood pressure checks, diabetes education, or other preventive services.
The impact may be greatest for residents facing barriers related to transportation, cost, work schedules, language, or trust.
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Whether preventive services are restored, redesigned, funded, or delivered in ways that reach the communities most affected.
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Public health departments, city or county officials, health systems, community clinics, state health agencies, budget committees, community health worker programs, and local nonprofit partners.
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Restore mobile services. Fund community health workers. Expand neighborhood-based screenings. Bring services to schools or community centers. Improve outreach in multiple languages. Dedicate resources to areas with the greatest need.
Restoring Preventive Health Services
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Families are experiencing health problems linked to unsafe housing conditions, such as mold, pests, poor ventilation, extreme heat, or delayed repairs.
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Children may be missing school because of asthma or other preventable health issues. Parents may have reported housing problems repeatedly without seeing timely repairs.
Families may feel their health concerns are being treated as private problems instead of signs of a larger failure.
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Whether unsafe housing conditions are inspected, repaired, monitored, and prevented from continuing.
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Property owners, housing authorities, code enforcement agencies, public health departments, tenant organizations, school leaders, and local officials.
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Complete building inspections. Require timely repairs. Address mold, pests, ventilation, and heat risks. Strengthen complaint response systems. Create a recurring process for monitoring housing-related health concerns.
Healthy Homes,
Healthier Kids
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A neighborhood pharmacy closes, reduces hours, or becomes difficult for residents to use.
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People may have trouble filling prescriptions, receiving vaccines, accessing pharmacist counseling, or managing chronic conditions.
Older adults, people with disabilities, people without cars, and patients taking multiple medications may be especially affected.
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Whether residents have a reliable, affordable, and accessible way to get medications and pharmacy support.
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Pharmacy operators, health systems, public health departments, local officials, Medicaid plans, insurers, community clinics, senior centers, and state pharmacy regulators.
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Create prescription delivery options. Establish medication pickup sites. Support a community pharmacy partnership. Coordinate with local clinics. Improve transportation to pharmacies. Require earlier community notice before closures.
Protecting
Medication Access
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Students in an under-resourced school or district cannot access timely mental health support.
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Students may wait too long for counseling, lack access to trusted adults, or struggle to get connected to outside services.
Families and educators may see rising stress, absenteeism, crisis needs, or unmet behavioral health concerns.
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Whether schools and local systems provide students with timely, accessible, and culturally responsive mental health support.
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School boards, superintendents, school administrators, county behavioral health agencies, community mental health providers, parent groups, student groups, and local officials.
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Fund school-based counselors. Expand referral partnerships. Improve crisis response. Create clear pathways to care. Invest in culturally responsive providers. Publicly report counselor-to-student ratios and service availability.
Supporting Student
Mental Health
Our Boundaries
People’s Health Project supports campaigns that address a defined health-fairness concern, center the people affected, identify a change that can be made, and use credible evidence and ethical public action.
A campaign may begin with one person, a group, or an organization. What matters is a real concern and a responsible effort to understand and involve the people affected.
We do not support campaigns that:
Promote hate, harassment, or discrimination
Spread medical or public health misinformation
Misrepresent evidence or community experience
Target individuals rather than systems, institutions, or decisions
Encourage threats, intimidation, or violence
Seek to shame patients, families, workers, or community members
Efforts lacking community partnership or input
Are unrelated to health, health care, public health, or the conditions that shape well-being
Is there a health concern you are ready to bring forward?
You may arrive with a fully developed campaign or with a concern you are ready to shape into focused action.
People’s Health Project offers two campaign-leadership pathways: members may submit a completed campaign for review or pursue Community Health Leadership Training when they need structured development support.