A comprehensive Guide and Toolkit for public health and social movements to build powerful partnerships.
Overview
Social justice movements and public health belong together. The Five Dimensions of Inside-Outside Strategy Guide is a comprehensive guide designed to help public health and social movements build durable and powerful partnerships capable of advancing and winning transformative change for health, equity, and justice.
At HIP, we work to build bridges between public health and movements for social change, because we know that both fields share the ultimate aim of reshaping structures, systems, and material conditions to truly support collective health. From our experience in this work, we also know it can be extremely challenging to align the very different worlds of community power-building organizations (CPBOs), which are social movement formations, and public health departments, which are part of governmental structures.
These differences necessitate intentional, strategic collaboration to foster mutual understanding, build trust, and align around shared goals. This guide offers an inside-outside strategy framework and practical blueprint to lay the foundations for that work.
Who The Guide Is For
The Five Dimensions of Inside-Outside Strategy guide focuses on intentional collaborations between health departments, on the “inside,” and community power-building organizations (CPBOs), on the “outside.” It is intended for those who work in either of these fields and aims to align their efforts strategically. This resource is for individuals and organizations who are already committed to advancing health equity and social justice. It is not a beginner-level guide; it is designed for those who are:
- Grounded in accountable relationships with their communities,
- Equipped with a foundational understanding of structural racism and intersecting forms of oppression, and
- Familiar with concepts of power, privilege, and systemic inequities.
For individuals or teams who need additional background, the toolkit includes recommended resources for further learning.
The Five Dimensions
The framework is built around five critical dimensions that both public health and CPBOs can use to advance an inside-outside strategy together. These dimensions are essential for fostering partnerships that can drive policy change and improve material conditions for health equity and racial justice.
- Nourish Relationships: Foster trust and build networks across individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels
- Deepen Leadership: Leverage and shift power by cultivating both individual and collective leadership
- Build Capacity: Develop resilient organizational support structures to sustain power-building and health equity work
- Navigate Political Landscapes: Assess external influences and power dynamics to identify allies, opponents, opportunities, and threats
- Hone Analysis: Build shared understanding of root causes and align around strategies and goals for transformative change
CPBOs can apply this framework to strengthen their base-building, organizing, and coalition efforts, while public health departments can align the framework with their foundational capabilities and essential public health services.
Five Dimensions Toolkit: Resources for working with the Five Dimensions of Inside-Outside Strategy
The Five Dimensions Toolkit is a companion resource to the guide, offering practical tools to apply the framework to the unique conditions of your community and work. The companion tools are designed to guide you through various real-world contexts using structured reflection, in-depth analysis, and action planning.
The toolkit includes:
- Screening Grid: A quick-start tool to begin applying the Five Dimensions to your specific context. Use it to identify your starting point and determine which tools and resources will be most relevant to your needs.
- Self Reflection Questions: A set of prompts for each of the Five Dimensions, which can be used as journal prompts or for open-ended thinking. This tool can be used by all, including those who aren’t currently part of inside-outside partnerships but want to consider how they can engage in this work.
- Strategy Snapshot Worksheets: Help partnerships and campaigns to develop strategies using the Five Dimensions. The worksheets include prompts and exercises to help you reflect on your experiences, identify challenges and opportunities, and create actionable steps to advance your work.
- Conflict Identification Tool: Conflict is common in equity and justice work – how we engage with it determines whether it is destructive or transformative. This tool uses the Five Dimensions to identify common sources of conflict that can occur with inside-outside strategy work.
- Assessment Tools User Guide: Helps partners conduct a thorough analysis of their work, assess strengths and challenges, and develop strategies for deeper alignment and impact. Expect to engage in detailed discussions, analyze your work together and identify concrete opportunities for growth.
