Posted in Expert Insights
The current COVID-19 pandemic, like many crises before it, has disproportionally affected communities of color, hitting Black and Latinx communities the hardest. COVID-19 has re-exposed the ingrained racism restricting access to quality healthcare, education, secure employment, and stable housing.
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RWJF Culture of Health Prize winners work continuously to evolve the culture of their community to one that realizes health, opportunity, and equity for all. We have heard from many of the 40+ Prize-winning communities in recent months about how they are responding to COVID-19. It is apparent they have much in common in how they consistently look to strong and diverse connections in times of crises.
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Rural health disparities are well documented, as are racial and ethnic health disparities (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2020). Evidence suggests that we have made little progress in closing these gaps over time, and in some cases disparities have widened, in spite of numerous efforts and improved health and quality of care for everyone. During my time working on both issues, I have been surprised and a little disheartened at how little researchers, advocates, policymakers, and funders focused on each area discuss the other, given how much they have in common. Many working to eliminate disparities in communities of color tend to focus on urban issues, and many advocating on behalf of rural communities tend to ignore communities of color, including tribal communities.
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Aligning Housing Strategies with Residents’ Most Critical Health Needs
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Like many of you, I suspect, I spent Saturday afternoon at a large protest over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more. As in every location, here in the Capital Region of New York we had our own names to add of those recently killed or seriously injured by police violence with little to no consequences—Dontay Ivy, Ellazar Williams, Edson Thevenin, Dahmeek McDonald, and many more unnamed.
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In November 2019, Build Healthy Places Network (the Network), with funding from The Kresge Foundation, launched Community Innovations to deepen outreach to and learning from local community development organizations that serve low-income communities and people of color. Community Innovations has a three-pronged goal: to enhance the Network’s understanding of how best to support local organizations’ cross-sector efforts; to connect local organizations to other peer organizations and the larger national dialogue, resources, and tools; and to embed capacity within organizations to undertake health strategies and engage with healthcare.
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