It takes a village to create a fair and just opportunity for health. No individual solution will do: we must all work together, at all levels and all sectors, to build a culture of health in Vermont.
As Vermonters, we take great pride in our strong communities and natural places. We share a common goal: to ensure that our state continues to be one of the healthiest and best places in the U.S. for all of us to live, learn, work and play.
Read more about the Vermont approach to creating cross-sector action and accountability for health
Many factors impact health—often we focus on access to care and individual behaviors. But change in these alone will not create fair and just opportunities for health for all. When we bring health into the conversation across the board, when we talk about how housing, transportation, food availability and other social determinants impact health; when we talk about who is involved in decision making and how policy impacts those determinants; when we talk about how systemic racism, class oppression and gender inequality have impacted those policies—then we begin to see the connection to health equity.
How are we working on all levels?
- Our commitment to health equity shows in our Vision & Mission, and is the lens through which we are renewing our health assessment and improvement plans.
- The Health in All Policies Task Force brings the conversation to the policy level.
- Partners in multiple sectors have identified how their daily work impacts health—see the “Health and…” section below for a growing index of best practices and ongoing projects.
- The Total Health Expenditure Analysis is a project that analyzes Vermont’s health spending across sectors.