The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to be able to move quickly and efficiently in new and virtual ways to be able to address the pandemic and to improve public health and equity. The American Public Health Association (APHA) and many of our partners saw the need for a collaborative movement to address it. That’s why we built the Alliance for Disease Prevention and Response (the Alliance), a cross-sectoral national effort to manage COVID-19, prevent future pandemics and advance health.

The lack of coordination and ability to share lessons and resources during the pandemic was striking. The spread of mis- and disinformation, lack of public trust, and disproportionate allocation of resources hindered our nation’s response. As the Alliance, we saw communities and individuals in search of better tools and information tailored to audiences with specific needs. In response, the Alliance, in collaboration with Community Commons and the Institute for People, Place, and Possibility, has launched the Public Health and Equity Resource Navigator or PHERN. PHERN is a web-based navigator that can locate and help amplify science-based resources, tools, and stories to end the pandemic, advance equity, and build a resilient, robust, sustainable public health system for the future.

PHERN is designed for a diverse set of individuals, groups, and sectors, including public health practitioners, decisionmakers at the state, local, tribal, and community levels, health care and community health workers, and students and educators.  Users can explore over 1,000 curated resources and sort them by topic or intended audience, or search by keyword. These materials will help spread the facts about COVID-19 public health measures, rebuild public trust, support the assessment of COVID-19 spread and share strategies, stories, resources, and best practices to end the pandemic and transform our public health system for the better. The speed and ease with which PHERN can be used to locate meaningful, targeted information is exciting for the Alliance and hopefully for users as well.

The Alliance sees PHERN as an important tool for public health beyond the lens of COVID-19. But PHERN will only be successful if it can meet the needs of the public and assist those in the field working to improve health and equity. We need you to assist us in making this the best, most relevant tool possible. Please share resources or events that we might be missing and provide any ideas to improve the site.

We are so excited to welcome you to PHERN and to see it finally unfurl!