As health promotion professionals, many of us were trained in the core public health competencies - planning, implementing, evaluating, researching, etc. However, curricula often leave out the core human skills of public health and life - resilience, authenticity, vulnerability, flexibility, compassion, etc. These skills are fundamental to fostering equitable environments and programming as we strive for more equitable health promotion at all levels. By practicing professional authenticity and crucial interpersonal skills via improv exercises in an engaging and supportive environment, this intensive training will give you direct knowledge of how to foster health equity in the field of health promotion and in other aspects of your life as well.
To intentionally and holistically work to mitigate systemic health inequities, health promotion professionals must have learning environments where they can be authentic, share their lived experiences, and feel safe to have challenging conversations.
When we center authenticity, connectedness, and resilience, we enhance belonging and listening to understand - key pillars that foster health equity among health promotion professionals as well as in the communities that we serve and are members of (Todić et al., 2022).
Research highlights the importance of interpersonal skills training and applications for more effective health promotion as well as more engaged, flexible, and resilient health promotion professionals (McPhee, 2022).. In this highly experiential workshop, we will play our way to connection, enhanced communication skills, and even have the opportunity to collaboratively work on a challenge or question participants are encountering in their work to practice putting all these fundamental skills together.