About Us
Who we Are:
Just Health Action (JHA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (Tax ID- 26:3032913) based in Seattle, Washington. We advocate for reducing health inequities that result from social, political, environmental, and economic conditions (social determinants of health, SDOH). JHA has been working since 2004 to develop and teach a critical health literacy curriculum as a means to take action on the SDOH to achieve health equity. JHA has taught SDOH topics in diverse educational settings around the country including in graduate and undergraduate university courses (global health, public health, engineering, urban planning), secondary school settings (formal and after school), at community health clinics, healthcare organizations, and public health departments.
JHA’s teaching model is designed to recruit health inequity experts to assist in researching, developing, and teaching SDOH curriculum in three ways. First, we have an advisory board that consists of health education experts who have been instrumental in the development of the JHA pedagogy, teaching, and authoring papers. Second, in community settings, JHA co-teaches with “community experts” to insure that our curriculum is culturally and linguistically appropriate. Finally, we have several “interns” (AmeriCorps Health Corps volunteers and MPH candidates) who have conducted independent studies or fulfilled thesis requirements on health inequities.
JHA also allies with communities to conduct research and document inequities that have been prioritized for community action. This has involved co-authoring documents such as a Health Impact Assessment and a Cumulative Health Impacts Analysis. We are currently working in the Duwamish Valley on two more projects: a “Vietnamese Subsistence Fishers Alternatives Pilot” grant which is conducting outreach with the Vietnamese to explore culturally competent alternatives to eating contaminated seafood from the Duwamish River and “Community Action for Clean Air”, an EPA Collaborative Problem Solving grant dedicated to locating the worst air pollution sources, reducing exposures, and reducing frequency and severity of asthma in the area.
