The Arkansas Health Equity Collaboration held its final meeting at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute in August 2024. This partnership brought together the Institute, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Delta Population Health Institute. The program was built on the belief that every Arkansan deserves a fair and just opportunity to achieve the highest level of health. To support that goal, the group identified four key areas for improvement: access to resources, education, policy development, and workforce health and well-being.
A central component of the collaboration was developing a shared understanding of the challenges facing Arkansas communities. During a meeting in April 2023, the group created a problem statement that guided its work throughout the program. Working groups were then formed to investigate specific community needs identified through statewide focus groups and to explore potential projects and solutions.
“There is a lack of trust and sense of powerlessness around addressing health equity barriers within communities most affected. This disenfranchises communities and cultures and prevents everyone from fully contributing their perspectives to health equity initiatives and engaging with possible resolutions.”
Arkansa Health Equity Collaboration Problem Statement
Working groups were formed to further investigate projects to meet the needs of Arkansans expressed during focus groups held around the state. The working groups are as follows:
This group examined how to cultivate stronger relationships with partners across multiple sectors and researched models used in other states to develop a statewide resource hub. The proposed hub would have provided tools to address barriers to equitable health care, including challenges in mental and behavioral health, food security, transportation, insurance access, and public health information.
Recognizing that learning about health and wellness is an ongoing process, this working group focused on expanding both formal and informal public health education. Projects included developing a community asset map to highlight existing public health education practices across Arkansas and creating a toolkit to support public health education for underrepresented communities.
This group created a survey for employers and employees designed to identify gaps in health equity within Arkansas’s workforce. The insights gathered were intended to help organizations understand workplace health disparities, inform resource development, and articulate a clear business case for advancing health equity.
This working group developed a set of public policy guiding principles to ensure that health considerations were incorporated into all policy decisions, not just those directly related to health care. The goal was to encourage policy choices that improved health and well‑being for all Arkansans, regardless of who they were or where they lived.
Creating the Arkansas Health Equity Collaboration
“Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2017
This program focused on the social determinants of health and examined the significant factors that influence health outcomes outside clinical care. The collaboration emphasized that aspects of daily life, including where people live, learn, grow, and play, are driving forces behind community well-being.
- Where we live
- Where we learn
- Where we grow
- Where we play
To prepare for this work, the Institute facilitated ten focus groups across Central Arkansas and in all four quadrants of the state. These included in-person sessions in North Little Rock, Fort Smith, Monticello, Camden, West Memphis, and Springdale. Insights from these discussions directly informed the collaboration’s priorities and recommendations.
Our Partners
Contact Person
For more information on how to get involved with the Arkansas Health Equity Collaboration’s continuing work, contact Dr. Brookshield Laurent at blaurent@nyit.edu.