This article describes a model for how attorneys, city leaders, public health subject matter experts, and public health advocates can collaborate to produce policy change that promotes health equity. The model described, CityHealth, has combined public health research, legal epidemiology, and targeted outreach to city leaders and staff with an approach that emphasizes rewarding cities for putting in place policies that address various social determinants of health, and that are likely to improve health equity.

While CityHealth staff and consultants are in constant direct contact with city officials to educate them about the policy package, a team of lawyers at the Center for Public Health Law Research at the Temple University Beasley School of Law (CPHLR) works behind the scenes, examining laws at the state, county, and city level and assessing them against the project’s policy criteria.

The CityHealth project models how legal epidemiology and intensive government relations work, in partnership with subject matter-focused NGOs, can educate and inform city leaders regarding best practices and experiences of other cities.