The journey to achieve health equity is just as important as the destination. Learning and research inform our work, helping us make decisions that guide us along the way. Collaborating with partners, we measure the impact and effectiveness of our systems change work. This approach enables us to show our results, refocus our efforts when needed, and expand our state’s evidence base on the many factors that influence health.  

Find out more about how we’re using learning and research to build an equitable future for Missourians. 

Firearm Violence Prevention  

• Together, with the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, we’re supporting four projects to get a more in-depth understanding of effective policies for addressing firearm violence.   
• We’re also working with the FrameWorks Institute to develop a research-based guide for how to have productive conversations about the need for policies and strategies that reduce injuries and deaths from firearms in Missouri. 

COVID-19 Vaccine Messaging Research 

• We commissioned a research project to better understand Missourians’ attitudes and perceptions about the COVID vaccine to ensure all Missourians were included in public education efforts. As a result, this work has been turned into a messaging toolkit that is supporting outreach and education efforts in communities across the state, so everyone has the information they need to make the best choice for themselves and their families. 

Pandemic Response 

When public health catastrophes like the pandemic occur, we’re able to explore all the ways structural inequities manifest. The results from our two latest projects will give us a fuller picture of how current systems negatively impact marginalized populations, allowing us to be more reflective and generate more meaningful observations, as we identify ways systems can be disrupted and transformed to work for everyone.

• Along with researchers at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, we examined the effectiveness of Missouri’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research assessed the frailties and strengths of the system, resulting in recommendations on how it can be made more resilient.
• We’ve partnered with a research team at Saint Louis University’s Institute for Healing Justice and Equity to diagnose how structural racism and other forms of social inequity have exacerbated the pandemic in St. Louis and the Bootheel to learn how we can modify systems, structures, laws, and policies to better respond to COVID and future pandemics.