Overview
The Network’s Racial Health Equity Legal and Policy Cohort pairs cohort members with dedicated Network law and policy experts who partner with them to provide tailored legal technical assistance on a community-centered racial health equity project that they are working on that would benefit from law and policy support. There is no cost to apply or to participate in the program, and some organizations may be eligible for a small stipend to support community and staff time. The application deadline is Friday, June 26 at 5 pm CT.
Addressing structural racism through law and policy should be a public health priority. There is no public health issue that is not shaped by racism. Organizations, communities, and health departments and agencies have moved forward much needed racial health equity initiatives, despite constrained workforces, insufficient infrastructure, limited resources, and pervasive structural barriers. While increased federal attacks on all things equity-related have made community and public health work harder, it has not made it impossible. It does, however, signify a greater need to think strategically about how to use law and policy to support communities of color, including those experiencing intersectional health-related harms due to factors like immigrant status, sexism, and classism.
Health equity cannot be achieved without eliminating the racial health disparities that currently exist. This means that structural racism and its impacts must be at the center of legal and policy changes at all levels. It also means that for those of us with law and policy expertise, working with impacted populations and communities requires using that knowledge in a way that is responsive to peoples’ lived experiences, priorities, and needs.
The Network’s Racial Health Equity Legal and Policy Cohort (RHE Cohort) does just that.
The RHE Cohort starts with a call for applications for community-based organizations; state, local, and tribal public health departments; and others to identify a community-centered racial health equity project that they are working on that would benefit from law and policy support. Selected entities (cohort members) are paired with dedicated Network lawyers and policy experts who partner with them throughout a seven-month period to provide up to 40 hours of tailored legal technical assistance on the project. Legal technical assistance can include scoping (issue spotting to narrow down the legal and policy priorities so that a project can move forward), research and analysis (jurisdictional scans of other entities who have engaged in similar projects including barriers and promising outcomes), and presentations (for cohort members as well as the communities they serve).
The subject matter of the racial health equity projects are driven by the cohort members, which means these projects are rooted in community needs. Some examples of recent projects include the use of law and policy for reparations, food justice, racial and ethnic data disaggregation, and protecting migrant agricultural workers from extreme heat. In prior RHE Cohorts, we have provided legal technical assistance on these and other issues using both race-based and race-neutral legal and policy strategies.
One reason that the RHE Cohort is valuable is that the executive branch and the federal government are relentlessly striving to shrink the use of race-based and race-neutral strategies—when they benefit underrepresented people of color— and the legal landscape on these issues is constantly shifting. The executive branch, and federal government more broadly, are also hypocritical when it comes to whether the government may expressly use race classifications: disavowing the governmental consideration of race as inconsistent with American values (see e.g., EO 14151) while also defending the use of race to violently target people in the name of immigration enforcement—a position expressly backed by at least one Justice in an order in Noem v. Perdomo in the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous shadow docket. These examples demonstrate a need for access to free legal technical assistance on projects that still aim towards a future where health disparities are no longer driven by racism and other intersecting structures. As these and other legal barriers continue to emerge and evolve, we are prepared to work with cohort members by providing legal and policy expertise.
To date, the Network’s RHE Cohort has supported dozens of organizations. One thing we have learned through the RHE Cohort is that it can be intimidating for non-lawyers to use law and policy. We help remove such barriers by creating resources that make law accessible and by providing consistent access to legal and policy public health experts. For me personally, the RHE Cohort is a meaningful project—many of us working in law and in public health are not only working to help communities fight for racial justice but are members of the communities being harmed by unjust laws. The RHE Cohort melds the personal and the professional in a way that promotes connection, a fundamental human need.
The legal and policy support we provide through the Network’s RHE Cohort is just one way that we put our commitment to advancing racial justice and health equity into action. Applications for the third RHE Cohort, which begins in September 2026 and runs through April 2027, are now open. There is no cost to apply or to participate in the program, and some organizations may be eligible for a small stipend to support community and staff time. To learn more and apply click here. The application deadline is Friday, June 26 at 5 pm CT.
This article was written by April Shaw, Interim Director, Health Equity, Network for Public Health.
The Network promotes public health and health equity through non-partisan educational resources and technical assistance. These materials are provided solely for educational purposes and do not constitute legal advice. The Network’s provision of these materials does not create an attorney-client relationship with you or any other person and is subject to the Network’s Disclaimer. Support for the Network is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The views expressed in this post do not represent the views of (and should not be attributed to) RWJF.
