Read the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity Annual Report 2023. To pursue, advance, and sustain rural health equity is a deeply complex and challenging effort. It takes the collective impact of multiple organizations, cross-sector coordination, and the creation of a common shared purpose to address and overcome the magnitude and complexities of rural health inequities. This report outlines the first year of work at CARHE and describes the successes and challenges of this complex transformational effort.
Past events
Genuine Community Engagement: Recognizing and Maximizing the Impact of Consumer and Community Member Experience to Advance Health Equity
November 7, 2023
CARHE hosted this virtual workshop, where over 50 people representing various community-based organizations and health system partners explored ways to nurture community engagement in all levels of governance, care, and leadership for positive community change.
The workshop learning objectives were:
- Participants will identify barriers to genuine consumer/community engagement.
- Participants will identify a variety of models for consumer/community engagement.
- Participants will consider ways that consumer/community engagement can be meaningfully included within their own work.
Community engagement workshop resources
- NHCHC Presentation Slides - November 7, 2023: Genuine Community Engagement (PDF)
Reprinted with permission from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. - Community Engagement Toolkit (PDF): This comprehensive, interactive toolkit was designed by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) to support groups to plan for building community engagement strategies into their work.
- We Asked, You Said (PDF): This worksheet, also developed by BPHC, is a template for documenting community engagement activities, outcomes, and follow-up.
Reprinted with permission from the BPHC.
Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity Fall Gathering: Learning and Acting Together in our Communities
When: Monday, October 30, 2023, 8:30 am to 1 pm
Where: Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, Vermont
Keynote address by Dr. Yvonne Goldsberry, MPH, PhD
President, The Endowment for Health
The Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity Fall Gathering will create a space for members from community services, health care delivery, research, and education to bring about transformational change by working together to eliminate unfair conditions and helping people in our rural New England communities to be as healthy as possible.
Participants will enhance their understanding of health equity challenges and solutions in our region, network with likeminded people, and come away better equipped to engage in partnerships for health equity in our communities.
Read a summary of the event (PDF).
Working Toward Health Equity for the LGBTQ+ Community
September 18, 2023
This event featured a panel conversation about obstacles to health equity faced by the LGBTQ+ community and the way forward. The conversation was moderated by Murphy Barney of StoryCorps and included representatives from community service organizations, health care, and the public sector. In addition to the speakers, several groups and organizations were present to share information about services and resources for LGBTQ+ community members.
The panel event was followed by the 37th Annual Schumann Lecture for Healthful Living, "Queering the outdoors: A Journey up my own personal mountain," presented by Perry Cohen, MEd, Founder of the Venture Out Project.
The First Gathering of the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity
Working Together to Improve Health for Rural New England Communities, November 7, 2022
The Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity held its first gathering on an unseasonably warm day on November 7, 2022 at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont. Approximately 150 people came together to learn from one another about health disparities in our region and to participate in meaningful dialogue about how to advance health equity in our communities through partnership and collective action.
Across various breakout sessions focused on health challenges, skill building, and partnership, several key themes emerged throughout the day.
- Summary of key themes from the event (PDF)
- Summary of key themes from the Open Space Idea Generation session (PDF)
- Event program (PDF)
- Speaker bios (PDF)
- Resources shared:
Rural health equity news
- How Academic Medicine Serves Rural Communities Across the Country (PDF) (AAMC Aug 2023)
- Dartmouth Health launching a new Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity (NBC5)
- Dartmouth Health launches Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity (Nashua Telegraph)
- Dartmouth Health’s new Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity launches Nov. 7 with public event (InDepthNH.org)
- Symposium explores rural health care (Valley News)
- Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, and Visiting Nurse and Hospice for VT and NH and partners release the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (PDF)
- Dartmouth Health partners with other Upper Valley Employers to Develop Workforce Housing Fund (Valley News)
- Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity co-sponsors free public lecture on climate change & health equity (Dartmouth Health)
- Shaheen Announces Federal Funding for Key NH Projects and Priorities, including $448,000 for Dartmouth Health to establish a center to address persistent health disparities in rural communities (Jeanne Shaheen website)
- Federal funds support pilot project to train rural emergency medical providers to deliver babies (Concord Monitor)
- Federal Grant to Fund Program for New Hampshire Behavioral Health Workforce Training, Improving Access in Rural Communities (Dartmouth Health)
- Dartmouth Health Removes Citizenship Question from Patient Registration Forms (Dartmouth Health)