Concurrent Breakout Sessions I

HIA 101 – An Intro to HIA

Overview:

Participants will engage with the presenters in an overview of the six stages of HIA and what HIA means for informed decision making. Participants are welcome to bring questions to this introductory session!

Presentations:

Emily Henke, Oregon Public Health Institute

Bethany Rogerson, Health Impact Project

HIA and Other Types of Impact Assessments

Overview:

Presenters in this session aim to engage the audience in a discussion about the importance of HIA as it relates to other methods of assessment. Discussions will include presentations about the Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment, which seeks to provide a flexible but structured approach to identifying and determining the possible impacts of a plan on different population groups; a conversation about leveraging the uniqueness of HIA to include knowledge of different types of assessments as a way to integrate HIA and improve the scientific rigor the assessment; in addition to a presentation about integrating HIA in the Environmental Impact Statement process.

Presentations:

Lauren Adkins, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

David Dube, Maricopa County, Department of Public Health (Arizona)

Katie Hirono, University of New South Wales

HIA and Criminal Justice

Overview:

Criminal justice policy in the United States is a major social determinant of health disparities. There is vastly disproportionate incarceration of African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos in the United States. There are also grave health impacts: due to a myriad of prison environment and social determinant effects, each year of incarceration decreases expected life span by two years. Additionally, a state prisoner in California commits suicide every 11 days. Prison is gravely harmful for mental and physical health, and the consequences of criminal conviction endure long after prisoners have fulfilled their sentences. Thus, it is inherent for advocates for health equity to engage in criminal justice policy. Even so, that specialty has been extremely underrepresented in the field of HIA. In this session, speakers will present three HIAs focused on criminal justice policies. One is a statewide ballot initiative in California, another is statewide legislation in New York, and the final is a local gang injunction ordinance in Orange County, California.

Presentations:

Kim Gilhuly, Human Impact Partners

Vivian Nixon, College and Community Fellowship

Azadeh Zohrabi, Ella Baker Center

HIA and Energy

Overview:

Alternative energy sources are increasingly being implemented across the United States. This session features presentations from speakers who have conducted HIAs used to inform energy-related decisions. Participants will hear about these HIAs as the speakers highlight lessons learned from the screening and stakeholder engagement components.

Moderator:

Whitney Magendie, National Network of Public Health Institutes

Presentations:

Casey DeMoss, Alliance for Affordable Energy

Michael Gurecka, New Opportunities, Inc.

Whitney Magendie, National Network of Public Health Institutes

Deborah Payne, Kentucky Environmental Foundation

HIA and Public Housing: Examples Using HIA to De-Escalate Challenging Political Environments

Overview:

As HIA practitioners, it is imperative that we seek to wholly understand diverse community and stakeholder perceptions. The impacts on health can uncover challenges for a community, which may be daunting to stakeholders and decision makers alike. The challenges may be worse yet; there may be findings that certain groups do not agree with or may find offensive. The solution is inherent in the HIA process. The audience will hear about three HIAs that encountered and transformed challenging situations involving stakeholders and the physical/political environment while conducting HIAs related to public housing decisions in Ohio, Arizona, and Texas.

Moderator:

Arielle McInnis-Simoncelli, Health Impact Project

Presentations:

Jimmy Dills, Georgia Health Policy Center

Tevis Foreman, Cincinnati Health Department

Arielle McInnis-Simoncelli, Health Impact Project

Debarati (Mimi) Majumdar Narayan, Catalyze Research and Consulting

Lessons Learned from an HIA of HUD’s Designated Housing Rule-Making

Overview:

The panelists will share findings on the potential implications of changes to the designated housing rule, with a focus on six factors important to health that could be affected: housing affordability, housing discrimination and choice, housing as a platform for supportive services, resident social environment, housing infrastructure and accessibility, and neighborhood characteristics. This session will also highlight lessons learned from applying HIAs to a federal regulatory policy, and in particular, discuss efforts to use data sources, methods, and stakeholder input processes that HUD could replicate and scale to incorporate health considerations in future agency decision making. Finally, the session will include a discussion of how the HIA identified opportunities for HUD to promote health through broader efforts to support community integration for people with disabilities and aging in place.

Presentations:

Ruth Lindberg, Health Impact Project

Ann O’Hara, Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc.

Shauna Sorrells, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

HIA in Transportation

Overview:

Transportation systems affect multiple aspects of health, including injuries, physical activity, and environmentally mediated illness. This session will include an overview of multiple HIAs completed by the Health Community Design Initiative within CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health; a presentation about a light rail extension project in Phoenix; and a description of efforts to integrate active transportation and safe routes to school in the Columbus, Ohio Large District School Travel Plan.

Moderator:

Nancy Goff, SOPHIA

Presentations:

Nancy Goff, SOPHIA

Monica Parsai, Saguaro Evaluation Group

Joseph Ralph, Health Community Design Initiative

Alex Smith, Columbus Public Health

Arthur Wendel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

HIA Effectiveness

Overview:

Effectiveness and rigor are often at the forefront of the debate about the value of HIAs. To address this point, HIA practitioners have made significant efforts to ensure that HIAs follow the practice standards to complete high-quality HIAs that inform decision makers about potential health impacts. This session features three speakers who will discuss the effectiveness of HIAs by highlighting the themes and contextual factors that have led to direct/indirect impacts and a change in decision making. Presentations to include topics such as an evaluation of HIAs in the U.S.; using HIA to support evolving, multistage public decisions; and HIAs used to influence redevelopment plans and decision makers.

Moderator:

Amber Lenhart, Health Impact Project

Presentations:

Carol Cahill, Center for Community Health and Evaluation

Andrea Hamberg, Oregon Health Authority

Amber Lenhart, Health Impact Project

Karen Roof, University of Colorado, Denver