A Framework for Comprehensive Transformation
Our revolutionary assessment tool measures and builds health equity across all dimensions of community life. More than metrics — this is a blueprint for creating conditions where everyone can thrive.
We believe that access to full health and wellbeing should be certain for all people despite differences resulting from designations of race, ethnicity, language, age, ability, gender, socioeconomic status, any other circumstance or identity, and the intersections among these.
Our framework rests on a foundational understanding: true health is never individual but always collective. From this source flows four interconnected pillars that, together, create the conditions for comprehensive wellbeing. By assessing our efforts through these pillars, we can measure our progress toward genuine health equity.
Ensuring fairness and justice in systems, policies, and opportunities
Creating pathways to wealth-building and economic self-determination
Fostering healthy, sustainable communities and ecosystems
Optimizing physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing for all
I am because we are
Ubuntu recognizes that individual wellness is inseparable from collective wellness. It is the understanding that love — the intercession necessary to make all beings healthy, happy, and whole — forms the foundation of all health equity work. This Source Pillar acknowledges our fundamental interconnectedness and interdependence with one another and with nature.
Without this foundation, the other pillars cannot stand. With it, transformation becomes not just possible but inevitable.
The wisdom to create Social Equity
The commitment to ensure Economic Equity
The reverence to protect Environmental Equity
The compassion to nurture Human Equity
…reflecting an active commitment to each other's thriving.
Ensuring fairness and justice in systems, policies, and opportunities
The assuredness of fairness in policy, regulation, and in the distribution of social resources and services to ensure that policy, social constructs, and institutional practices:
Do all community members have equal voice in decisions?
Are cultural traditions respected and supported?
Is there fair representation in leadership?
Creating pathways to wealth-building and economic self-determination
The assuredness of:
Can all community members build wealth?
Are there barriers to business ownership?
Is economic opportunity distributed fairly?
Fostering healthy, sustainable communities and ecosystems
The assuredness of access to and preservation of :
Do all communities have access to clean environments?
Are environmental burdens distributed fairly?
Can communities shape their environmental future?
Optimizing physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing for all
The assuredness of access to experiences, opportunities, and resources that optimize:
Can all people reach their full potential?
Is high quality healthcare truly accessible to everyone?
Are diverse healing traditions honored?
Ready to assess and advance health equity in your organization or community? Our tools translate the Pillars framework into actionable steps for transformation:
Evaluate your organization's equity impact
Measure neighborhood health equity progress
Assess legislation through an equity lens
Teach the Pillars in your programs
Organizations worldwide are adopting the CHEM Pillars as their north star for equity work. From Portland's Cannabis Policy Oversight Team to healthcare systems, educational institutions, and community organizations — the movement grows each time another group commits to measuring what matters.
Join organizations worldwide in using this proven framework to advance health equity
Health Equity is the assuredness of access to full health and wellbeing. Join us in creating a future where health equity is assured for all people.
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CHEM Pillars of Health Equity®