About Us

RJCM
About
about us

Background

Developed a competency model for racial justice.

In October 2020, the Public Health Training Center Network (PHTCN) and National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) formed a workgroup to explore the development of a racial justice competency model. The Racial Justice Competencies for Public Health Professionals (RJCM) is a tool to support racial justice learning among individuals and organizations. 

The RJCM contains 51 competency statements that align with the three domains of the 10 Public Health Essential Services: assessment, assurance, and policy development. While competencies span three levels of learning—introductory, intermediate, and leading—the model is not a checklist to be worked through in a sequential fashion. Individuals and organizations may be in different places in their journey to acquire knowledge and skills around health equity and racial justice; the RJCM and accompanying implementation toolkit can provide guidance through ongoing growth.

To learn more about the Racial Justice Competency Model and toolkit, visit this video series created by the Colorado Association of Resilient and Equitable Systems (CO-CARES).

Process
process

Competency Set Development Process

We followed a competency development process from the U.S. Department of Labor, outlined below.

Creating a Competency Library

• 1 •

Beginning with the 10 PHTCs and our partner organizations, we identified existing competency statements and frameworks used in training development and strategic planning efforts. The resulting competency library comprised over 650 statements relevant to health equity and racial justice.

Convening an Expert Review Panel

• 2 •

A group of 35 public health practitioners from state, local, and tribal public health departments; federal government agencies such the CDC; non-governmental organizations; and academics from various schools of public health across the country were convened to help prioritize competency statements and provide feedback and suggestions throughout the process.

Create Draft Model

• 3 •

ERP members and our workgroup took part in an iterative process of development, including monthly meetings to discuss the utility of the model, the organizing framework that should be used, including domains and the use of tiers. The ERP provided insight on the applicability of the competency statements and their relevance in providing staff with the tools to combat racism in their public health work.

Validating the Work Model

• 4 •

Validation will ensure that the model reflects the necessary and practical knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to address racism in public health practice. This includes a pilot testing phase as well as feedback we are collecting.

Refining and Finalizing the Model

• 5 •

Based on the results of the validation phase, we refined and finalized Version 1 of the model. This model will be periodically reviewed and revised to ensure it remains relevant for public health practitioners.
PHTC
Public Health Training Center Network

PHTCN