From Knowledge to Action: Guides for Equitable Well-Being

At IP3 and Community Commons, we work to deepen understanding of—and drive investment and action toward—the well-being of people, places, and the natural environment. IP3 advances this mission by organizing and sharing knowledge that builds awareness, engages learners, and turns learning into action—strengthening the capacity of stewards to advance equitable well-being across the nation.

Community Commons hosts a series of curated content collections designed to help changemakers move from knowledge to action. Each collection focuses on a major issue affecting community and population well-being and brings together practical, evidence-based strategies that can be implemented locally. The collections organize different types of actions that community stewards can take to improve conditions in their communities. These collections use a framework for taking action developed by IP3, which groups actions into four (not mutually exclusive) categories:

Immediate actions that respond to urgent or emerging needs, grounded in the lived experiences and leadership of those most impacted by the issue.
Priority actions that advance health and equity for everyone affected by the issue, including both direct and secondary impacts.
Actions that strengthen conditions for thriving by addressing the underlying determinants of health and shifting policies, processes, and community conditions.
Transformative actions that build momentum for lasting change by shifting power dynamics, mindsets, narratives, and social norms.

Together, all actions create waves of change and cumulatively advance equitable well-being. In these Taking Action collections, we advocate for efforts that center lived experience and intersectionality, are collaborative, multi-solve across sectors, span multiple levels of impact, and maintain continuity over time.

We’ve gathered and organized our collections of taking-action content into sections below to help you get started. Explore the topics, and please let us know which topics you’d like to see added to this growing set of actionable guides for community change.