The Civic Health Alliance is a non-partisan coalition of health and civic leaders allied around one common cause: the advancement of America’s health through civic engagement in care settings and communities.

Camara Jones via TEDx Talks

Allegories on race and racism (20:31, video autoplays) uses storytelling to discuss race and racism in the United States, and to empower people to take action to reduce racism.

In this 20-minute TEDx event video, Dr. Camara Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, shares four allegories on race and racism. The goal is that these stories empower people to take action to reduce racism and its impact on health.

The four allegories are:

1. Japanese lanterns: Racial constructs color our imaginations of who we are; race is a social classification not a biological descriptor.
2. Dual reality—a restaurant saga: Racism structures "Open/Closed" signs in our society. This allegory defines racism and briefly describes the impact.
3. Levels of racism—a gardeners tale: The relationship between three levels of racism and may guide thinking about how to intervene to mitigate the impacts of racism on health. Read more: Jones, CP. (2000). Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener's Tale. Am J Public Health 90, 1212-1215. (PDF).
4. Life on a conveyor belt—moving to actions: Three possible actions that can be taken to be actively anti-racist.

The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership  (14 pages)

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/facilitatingpower/pages/53/attachments/original/1596746165/CE2O_SPECTRUM_2020.pdf?1596746165

 
Sen. Harris, Kamala D. [D-CA] (Introduced 07/15/2019) 

(1) There are an estimated 2,500,000 domestic workers across the United States working in the homes of people of the United States to provide home and personal care, child care, and house cleaning services.

(2) Domestic work makes all other work possible. It is work that cannot be outsourced to workers living outside of the United States, nor is it close to being automated. Without the millions of domestic workers caring for children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities, and cleaning homes, much of the economy would come to a standstill.

(3) The employment of individuals in domestic service in households affects commerce as described in section 2(a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 202(a)).

(4) Domestic workers are hired or contacted for work by phone, mail, or Internet, or through newspaper ads, and travel to work through transportation on interstate highways, interstate transit, or vehicles in interstate commerce.

(5) In 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that between 2016 and 2026—

• (A) the number of new jobs for home health and personal care aides will increase 41 percent, which is an increase of 1,200,000 jobs and the largest increase in new jobs of any occupational category during such period; and
• (B) the number of new jobs for child care and house cleaning positions will increase 6 to 7 percent.

(6) Nine out of ten domestic workers are women, and such women are disproportionately people of color and immigrants. Women, people of color, and immigrants have historically faced barriers to employment and economic advancement.

(7) Domestic workers face low wages and unacceptable working conditions. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the average wage for a domestic worker is approximately $11 per hour, or $23,000 per year if working full-time. In practice, the average wage for a domestic worker is less than such approximation given that domestic work has largely been negotiated in the informal labor market.

(8) A landmark study of domestic workers published in 2012 by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Center for Urban Economic Development of the University of Illinois at Chicago Data Center titled “Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work” indicated poor working conditions across the domestic workers industry. The findings of such study included that—

• (A) domestic workers have little control over their working conditions, and employment is usually arranged without a written contract;
• (B) 35 percent of domestic workers interviewed reported that they worked long hours without breaks in the year immediately preceding the interview;
• (C) 25 percent of live-in domestic workers had responsibilities that prevented them from getting at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night during the week immediately preceding the interview; and
• (D) 91 percent of domestic workers interviewed who encountered problems with their working conditions in the year immediately preceding the interview did not complain about their working conditions because they were afraid they would lose their job.

(9) The study described in paragraph (8) found that domestic workers have little access to federally supported employment benefits. For instance:

• (A) Less than 2 percent of such workers receive retirement or pension benefits, and less than 9 percent of such workers work for employers that collect payroll taxes on wages paid to such workers to provide eligibility for Social Security benefits.
• (B) Sixty-five percent of such workers do not have health insurance, and only 4 percent of such workers receive employer-provided insurance, despite the fact that domestic work is hazardous and often results in illness or physical injuries.

(10) Compounding these challenges is the fact that many domestic workers have been, and in many cases continue to be, excluded from key provisions of labor and employment laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.), the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.), and the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 151 et seq.). Minimum employee threshold rules, misclassification of domestic workers as independent contractors, and exclusion of independent contractors from coverage means that most domestic workers are also de facto excluded from Federal civil rights protections, including protections under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (29 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) and other laws.

(11) The International Labour Organization’s Domestic Workers Convention, adopted in 2011, calls for domestic workers to have the right to freedom of association and collective actions, protections against harassment, privacy rights, and the right to be informed of conditions of employment. This Convention also calls for the right of domestic workers to keep their travel documents, the right to overtime compensation and rest breaks, the right to minimum wage coverage, the right to occupational safety and health protections, and mechanisms to pursue complaints and ensure compliance with the law.

(12) The unique nature of their work, in private homes with individuals and families, also often makes it difficult for domestic workers to use Federal programs and policies to improve their skills and training and to join together collectively to negotiate better pay and working conditions.

(13) Many domestic workers are also vulnerable to discrimination and sexual harassment. These issues are further exacerbated by the unique working conditions faced by domestic workers, such as isolation, poverty, immigration status, the lack of familiarity with the law and legal processes, limited networks for support, language barriers, and fear of retaliation and deportation.

(14) Millions of older individuals, individuals with disabilities, and families are increasingly relying on domestic workers. By bringing domestic work out of the shadows and creating incentives and investments that help raise wages and standards for domestic workers, the Federal Government can lift millions of the most vulnerable workers out of poverty, reduce turnover due to poor working conditions, thereby enhancing quality of care, and support the millions of working and retired people of the United States who rely on them.

• Purpose must be larger than oneself and one’s organization.
• Power must be built and distributed with others, not consolidated.
• Wealth must be invested, not withheld, to create long-term value as well as address short-term urgent needs

Link to ReThink Health website

 "We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona virus existence was not normal other that we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature."
Sonya Renee Taylor

"No volveremos a la normalidad. Lo normal nunca lo fue. Nuestra existencia del virus antes de la corona no era normal, sino que normalizamos la codicia, la inequidad, el agotamiento, el agotamiento, la extracción, la desconexión, la confusión, la rabia, el acaparamiento, el odio y la falta. Amigos míos, no deberíamos anhelar volver. Se nos da la oportunidad de coser una nueva prenda. Uno que se adapta a toda la humanidad y la naturaleza."
Sonya Renee Taylor 

1. An Antiracist Agenda for Medicine 
http://bostonreview.net/science-nature-race/bram-wispelwey-michelle-morse-antiracist-agenda-medicine

2. IMF: How COVID-19 Will Increase Inequality in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies
https://blogs.imf.org/2020/10/29/how-covid-19-will-increase-inequality-in-emerging-markets-and-developing-economies/. 

3. ReThink Health: Community Influence on Nonprofit Hospital Systems https://rethinkhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/RTH-CommunityInfluenceHosp_182021.pdf

4. The Gaps Between White and Black America, in Charts https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/19/opinion/politics/opportunity-gaps-race-inequality.html

5. The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/10-069.pdf

6. Measuring Social Change: Performance and Accountability in a Complex World https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27990  

7. Community-Engagement Governance: Systems-Wide Governance in Action https://nonprofitquarterly.org/community-engagement-governance-systems-wide-governance-in-action/

8. Transforming the Work of the Board: Moving Toward Community-Driven Governance - Part 1 http://www.nonprofitsa.com/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Public/Community-DrivenGovernanceNonprofitGovernanceReviewFreiwirth.pdf

9. Strengthening Community Voices In Policy Reform http://communitylearningpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/STRENGTHENING-COMMUNITY-VOICES-final-version-1.pdf 

 Health Equity Principles for State and Local Leaders in Responding to, Reopening, and Recovering from COVID-19  rwjf461294.pdf ( 5 pages)

 Recommendations:

1. Collect, analyze, and report data disaggregated by age, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, neighborhood, and other sociodemographic characteristics.
2. Include in decision-making the people most affected by health and economic challenges, and benchmark progress based on their outcomes.
3. Establish and empower teams dedicated to promoting racial equity in response and recovery efforts.
4. Proactively identify and address existing policy gaps while advocating for further federal support.
5. Invest in strengthening public health, health care, and social infrastructure to foster resilience.

From Hurricane Katrina to the 2008 financial collapse, we have seen how recovery efforts that do not deliberately solve for issues facing low-income communities and communities of color only serve to reinforce existing disparities. As we navigate our way through the COVID-19 crisis, we need a Common-Sense, Street-Smart Recovery to build an inclusive economy and equitable nation that works for all. To realize the promise of equity, leaders must be dedicated to the full set of principles outlined below.

As the current public health and economic crisis continues to impact people around the world, we now know that across the United States, people of color are bearing the brunt of the effects of COVID-19. Centering racial equity must be at the core of this recovery.

During the last recession, corporations received massive bailouts while continuing with risky practices that undermined the strength of the economy, making us unprepared for the current shock from COVID019. Congress has started down this path once again, creating a half trillion-dollar fund to bail out corporations while millions of people are out of work. We can only fully recover by prioritizing people over profits.

For an equitable and lasting recovery from the coronavirus crisis, we must rebuild our physical infrastructure – food systems, water, housing, transit, and roads – as well as social infrastructure – the trusted network of nonprofit, cultural, philanthropic, and local institutions that help our communities function.

In addition to exposing our extreme inequality, the pandemic has also revealed our interconnectedness: we are only as safe as the least protected among us. In a diversifying country, dismantling structural racism and ensuring economic security for all is the right thing to do and the necessary thing to do. Equity is our path to a strong next economy.

A top-down recovery will not capture the long-term knowledge, wisdom, and experience that residents and community leaders have. Community engagement is more important than ever as residents are uniquely positioned to be the agents and owners of community change.

Envisioning a California for ALL (2021)

TCE support wellness, inclusion, and shared prosperity for all Californians. 

TCE plan for the next 10 years is to expand our reach across California and increase impact from the previous 14 Building Healthy Community sites. 

4 Regions

1. North
2. Central 
3. Los Angeles
4. South

Three Bold Ideas

1. People Power
2. Reimagined public institutions
3. A 21st Century Health for ALL System

TCE Aim to Increase Social Justice and Health Equity in 

Five Focus Areas:

1. Health Systems
2. Inclusive Community Development
3. Justice reinvestment
4. Power Infrastructure
5. Schools

Contact: 

California Endowement 

1000 N. Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

P: (800) 449-4149

Building Healthy Communities (BHC) is a 10 year, $1 billion comprehensive community initiative launched by The California Endowment (TCE) in 2010 to advance statewide policy, change the narrative, and transform 14 of California's communities most devastated by health inequities into places where all people have an opportunity to thrive. To understand the health challenges facing these communities, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research was asked to collect health data as part of the 2009 and 2015 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS 2009 and CHIS 2015). This health data helps measure and understand the successes and challenges faced by the Building Healthy Communities experiment over its decade-long investment.

UCLA Fielding School of Public Health 

The following Health Profiles pres​ent important data from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey Oversample for 14 Building Healthy Communities (BHC)​ communities. They provide a snapshot of key health findings at the beginning of the BHC planning process and can be used to track change over time. They can also be used to mobilize friends and neighbors, advocate for improved health, secure greater resources, and guide community planning.

1. Boyle Heights​
2. Central Santa Ana​
3. Central/Southeast/Southwest Fresno​​
4. Central/West Long Beach​
5. City Heights​
6. Del Norte County​
7. Eastern Coachella Valley ​
8. East Oakland  ​
9. East Salinas   ​
10. Richmond​
11. South Kern (Arvin-Lamont)   ​
12. South Los Angeles​
13. Southwest/East Merced County​
14. South Sacramento​

​

Phone: 310-794-0909

Fax: 310-794-2686

Email: healthpolicy@ucla.edu

 Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community

1. How Racism Causes Mental Health Problems
2. Common Serious Mental Illnesses Among Black People
3. Why Don’t More Black People Seek Mental Health Help?
4. The Importance of Culturally Competent Care

Racism and Discrimination on the Mental Health of our Black Communities.

As you know, mental health is one of the vital issues facing the Black community in America. Sadly, given the racism and racial injustice African Americans have faced, it’s not surprising that they have become more susceptible to struggle with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.

Unfortunately, just 1/3 of Black people will receive the help they need. For some, longstanding racism has hurt their economic prospects and their ability to access affordable, high-quality mental health assistance. Other African Americans are afraid of the stigmas regarding mental illnesses and treatment.

But not finding help can make mental illnesses even worse. One of our goals is to help people find the assistance they need when they need it.

We also want to help to start a conversation about how racism affects the African American community's mental health. And help to reduce the shame and stigma sometimes associated with mental illness and mental health treatment

If you want to learn more about it, please check our guide:

Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community

Best Regards

Edgardo Ocampo

Community Outreach Director

Sunshine Behavioral Health

Address: 45000 River Ridge Dr #350, Clinton Twp, MI 48038

Phone: (248) 210-4135 

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