November 2018 Volume 3 Issue 2 Karen W. Lowrie, PhD; Leigh Ann Von Hagen, AICP/PP 1 HIA TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONALS: HOW A UNIVERSITY-BASED CENTER CAN HELP TO BUILD AWARENESS AND CAPACITY PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FIELD HIA Training for Professionals Lowrie; Von Hagen 2 Introduction When a group of faculty and research staff from various subfields of planning at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Jersey got together in 2012 around their common interest in fostering healthy communities, they realized there were gaps in connections and information-sharing between planners, public health professionals and policy-makers to understand health outcomes in non-health policy and project decisions. From initial discussions and research, the Planning Healthy Communities Initiative (PHCI) was born. PHCI is a multidisciplinary team at the Rutgers Bloustein School with expertise in active transportation and infrastructure, green buildings, environmental analysis, advancing health equity, and supporting community- based efforts. One of the pillars of the PHCI is capacity- building. Quick research revealed that by 2012, only one Health Impact Assessment (HIA) had been performed in New Jersey and that no other institution in the state was conducting or actively promoting HIA. Therefore organizations and governments had little awareness of them or capacity to perform them. PHCI stepped in to fill this gap in a number of ways, but perhaps the most in-depth and most direct was the creation of a new one-day HIA training course that would be the first ever in New Jersey. HIA Class Specifics One of the PHCI goals is to educate as many decision- makers and administrators in New Jersey as possible about the purpose and goals of HIA and Health in all Policies (HIAP). In spring of 2015, the first training course was offered. The course is one of many in varied fields listed with the Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education (CPE). Offering the class through CPE has many advantages including their lead role in advertising, classroom facility and catering setup, fee collection and online and onsite registration. CPE staff also assist with securing CEU’s (see table below) from various professional associations, and issue participation certificates. With Rutgers CPE staff handling much of the class logistics, the facilitators from PHCI are responsible for instructing on the content, leading group exercises and discussions, and preparing PowerPoint slides and participant packets. PHCI also advertises the class through its website and that of the Bloustein School, and through e-mail blasts to other associations in the planning, development and public health fields. Some selected CEU’s offered to HIA training participants: Rutgers University 0.5 CEUs NJ Site Remediation Professional Licensing Board (NJSRPB) 4.5 Regulatory credits Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) 4 Category 1 CE Credits Rutgers Planning and Zoning Certificate 3 Technical Credits American Planners Association (APA) 5 CEUs NJ Continuing Legal Education (CLE) 3.4 CLEs NJ Health Officers and Registered Environmental Health Specialists (REHS) 5 NJ Public Health Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEs) NJ Professional Engineers 5 Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) credits HIA Training for Professionals Lowrie; Von Hagen 3 The one-day class runs from mid-morning through mid-afternoon, with breakfast and lunch provided. The instructional material covers the six steps of HIA through a mix of lecture and group exercises with report-outs. Exercises on screening, scoping, assessment and recommendations are conducted in groups of 4-8 participants. The class ends with discussion of the application of HIA in job settings, and brainstorming about resources needed to help participants to implement it in their workplaces. The facilitators draw on real-life examples from HIAs that PHCI has conducted in New Jersey over the past five years. Participant Evaluations As of fall of 2018, about 150 people have attended the six sessions that have been conducted. Participants attend mostly from local and regional governments, non-profits and private consultants from the fields of planning, public and environmental health, community development and engineering. Recently, hospital employees have attended because hospitals are getting more involved with policy and with community health initiatives. Many attend the training sessions for the credits, and some also for points awarded by Sustainable Jersey, a program that rewards NJ municipalities for taking actions to become more sustainable and improve quality of life. Others noted that they took the class because it sounded “interesting” and they wanted to learn more about this new screening tool to help with decision-making. The class is open to anyone, and several attendees have also come from outside New Jersey. In post-class evaluation, a vast majority rated the class as “Excellent” or “Very Good” on program objectives, content, usefulness and stimulating interest in the topic. The most popular elements of the class are the group exercises and discussions, the breakdown of the six steps, and networking that occurred in the room as people from across different sectors and different parts of the state meet each other and work together. Participants were asked for the most valuable parts of the class and to describe what they learned. Answers demonstrate the value of the class in raising awareness and building some capacity for HIA in New Jersey. Selected comments by HIA class participants on the learning value and benefits of the class: • I learned how to incorporate an HIA into a project. • I learned the importance of identifying and engaging subgroups to include in the process. • I learned performing a health pathway. • I really appreciated the sourced information in the presentation. • Overall, course was an excellent introduction to the topic of HIA. • Excellent program, I hope to implement HIA with township committee, planning board and Green Team. • The information was very practical; the team work at tables was great. • I learned that almost every decision has an impact on the health of the community and individuals. • I am better equipped to promote role of health when working with counties and municipalities. • HIA is really new to me-so I learned a lot of relevant vocabulary, concepts and case study applications. • It broadened my perspective on health impacts. • Class should be mandated for municipal government. Extensions and follow-up suggested by attendees include the creation of a sharing distribution to continue collaboration and discussion among program attendees, and the offering of additional training that focuses more on the role of regulation and government and/or that goes into more detail on HIA or HIA 2.0 applications. HIA Training for Professionals Lowrie; Von Hagen 4 Key Takeaways For the PHCI facilitators, the HIA training class has been a fun, worthwhile, and interesting experience. We feel that it is an ideal role for a University because we can offer training at a less expensive price, utilize/ leverage in-house expertise and resources, and we are perceived as a “neutral” organization and site without any political or financial motive or connection with advocacy. After almost four years, we have developed a set of take-away messages – some in the form of general observations and some in the form of wishes for the future of the program: • The language of health is different from the language of other professional fields…Thinking through a health lens is sometimes a difficult exercise for those in non-health fields. Teaching about health pathways and logic models therefore can create “lightbulb moments” in attendees from non-health sectors. • Many class participants see the value of HIA, but wonder how to get it done. The most common concern usually centers on questions about resources and capacities to conduct HIA and justifying the time to do it given the lack of mandates. • Many attendees lack the confidence that they will be able to sift through data sources and to analyze, understand and trust data without expert help. • Connecting people across disciplines around health impacts can forge new relationships around common goals. People meeting other people from different sectors and different types of organizations, and hearing each other’s perspectives is one of the great benefits of the training. We hope to respond to the recommendations of attendees for a “Part 2” class offering. We have also re-packaged the content prepared for the six-hour class into shorter 1, 2 and 3-hour versions to take “on the road” to various other organizations, with similar positive reactions from audiences. We at PHCI are happy to further discuss our experiences and share our insights with others considering developing similar programs. Please contact Karen Lowrie (klowrie@rutgers.edu) or Leigh Ann Von Hagen (lavh@rutgers.edu), and visit our website at phci. rutgers.edu. Promotional Flyer for HIA Training Course HIA Training for Professionals Lowrie; Von Hagen 5 CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Karen Lowrie, PhD Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Rutgers University 33 Livingston Ave. Newbrunswick, NJ 08901 klowrie@rutgers.edu CHIA Staff: Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Stone, DrPH, RN, Professor, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Journal Manager Angela Evertsen, BA, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Chronicles of Health Impact Assessment Vol. 3 Issue 2 (2018) DOI: 10.18060/22755 © 2018 Author(s): Lowrie, K.; Von Hagen, L. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License