The San Francisco Bay Area Health Impact Assessment Collaborative is a group of academic, government, and non-profit HIA practitioners who have joined together to be more effective in conducting HIA, engaging stakeholders in partnerships, providing training, and helping to develop policy.  The Collaborative began working together in 2006 and is comprised of organizations that are national leaders in HIA practice including the non-profit Human Impact Partners (HIP), the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), and the University of California, Berkeley Health Impact Group (UCBHIG).

Good HIA practice involves collaboration at every step.  The planning of an HIA, the methods and research applied, and the communication of findings require diverse skill sets that can be maximized by drawing on the strengths of different disciplines and working collaboratively across organizations.  Furthermore, as the spirit of HIA advocates inter-disciplinary collaboration, developing formal collaborations helps put this recommendation into practice.

We welcome new members to the HIA Collaborative. Interested individuals and/or organizations should be HIA practitioners who can work with the Collaborative around our four strategies: conducting case studies, developing and advancing policy, providing training and mentorship and participating in partnerships across various sectors.  Please contact us if you are interested in joining the Collaborative.

Collaborative Members

Human Impact Partners

Mission:  Human Impact Partners (HIP) believes that health should be considered in all decision-making.  They raise awareness of and collaboratively use innovative data, processes and tools that evaluate health impacts and inequities in order to transform the policies, institutions and places people need to live healthy lives.  Through training and mentorship they also build the capacity of impacted communities and their advocates, workers, public agencies, and elected officials to conduct health-based analyses and use them to take action.

What HIP brings to the Collaborative: Having completed several HIAs that have successfully influenced decision-making in California and beyond, HIP offers a great deal of hands-on HIA experience. HIP’s role as an independent organization enables it to effectively interface with community stakeholders in HIA projects, as well as train and mentor a wide variety of public health professionals, government agencies and community groups in HIA practice.

Specifically, HIP brings experience in:

• Training community-based organizations, government agencies and other stakeholders to conduct HIAs in their own communities
• Conducting HIAs on policies, plans, and projects in collaboration with community groups and other stakeholders
• Integrating HIA findings into policy-making and projects to help advance health equity
• Raising awareness among local, state, and national stakeholders about how HIA can be an effective tool for promoting social change
• Advocating for the consideration of health and the use of HIA in decision-making

San Francisco Department of Public Health – Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability

Mission:  The Program on Health, Equity and Sustainability (PHES) supports San Franciscans working together to advance urban health as well as social and environmental justice through ongoing integration of local government and community efforts and through valuing the needs, experiences, and knowledge of diverse San Francisco residents.

What SFDPH brings to the Collaborative:  Within PHES, the Urban Health and Place team develops, applies and disseminates tools, research and expertise to assess environmental conditions and respond to urban health inequities and environmental policy gaps.  SFDPH uses these tools and its general public health expertise to work with community stakeholders and government agencies to inform project development and policy-making and to improve the consideration of health and health inequities in decision-making.

Specifically, SFDPH brings experience in:

• Developing and institutionalizing HIA tools and practice
• Conducting and disseminating HIAs at the local level
• Providing HIA training and technical assistance to public health, planning and regulatory agency officials, non-profit organizations, and private consultants
• Creating and supporting new policies that address health inequities
• Understanding the policy development, adoption, and implementation process and the policy-making levers that can be influenced by HIAs

University of California, Berkeley Health Impact Group

Mission:  The University of California’s fundamental mission is to provide undergraduate and graduate-level education, research, and public service.  The University of California, Berkeley Health Impact Group (UCBHIG) reflects this mission in its goal to serve communities and decision-makers in assessing the health impacts of societal decisions by providing academic coursework and conducting research in assessment methodologies and their practice.

What UCBHIG brings to the Collaborative:  Within UCBHIG, student and faculty work together to explore quantitative and qualitative methods for evaluating the impact of newly proposed decisions and policies. Through local and international partnerships, UCBHIG practices these tools to improve how societal decisions are made.

Specifically, UCBHIG provides:

• Graduate-level instruction in Health Impact Assessment
• Engagement of academic expertise from multiple disciplines, departments, and research units into the field of HIA
• Promotion of the HIA process into existing lines of scientific/policy research
• Mentorship of students interested in diverse interests in broad determinants of health, and their assessment for health policy
• Research into new quantitative and qualitative health assessment methods