MN SOPHE members have identified health equity as a key advocacy priority. In order to achieve health equity, all of the social determinants of health must be considered: education, economic stability, health care access, social contexts and local environment factors. With regards to health care access, there’s a critical need in the United States to restructure the health care system. The current system has resulted in economic, racial and location-related disparities in care and coverage. Even among individuals with insurance, at least 25% are struggling to afford health care costs. As an organization with a mission to provide leadership to the profession of health education and health promotion-and to promote our communities’ health, we believe our members should be informed about options to rethink our health care system and learn about ways to advocacy for it’s restructure.

This session is intended for public health and healthcare professionals who are interested in learning more about the shortcomings of the current US health care system, the features of a single payer health system relative to achieving health care efficiency and equity.  Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the public health implications of health care reform and learn ways to advocate for health care reform.

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Learn about federal efforts to achieve health equity in rural America. Panelists will present on strategies the Administration is taking to prioritize health equity and eliminate disparities in health access, policy, and practice. Panelists will include:

• Diana Espinosa, Acting Administrator, HRSA
• Catherine Oakar, Special Assistant to the President for Community Public Health and Disparities, White House Domestic Policy Council
• Tom Morris, Associate Administrator, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, HRSA
• Dr. LaShawn McIver, Director, Office of Minority Health, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Dr. Loretta Christensen, Chief Medical Officer, Indian Health Service

Register for this 11/18 11:30am ET event!

Creative Placemaking Funding Opportunity!

Submission Deadline Extended: Friday, November 26th, 2021

Do you or others in your community use arts and cultural activities to work towards community well-being? Have you been engaging in creative placemaking or WE-Making?

The WE-Making framework maps the relationship between place-based arts and cultural strategies, social cohesion, and increased equitable community well-being. To demonstrate how WE-Making can be leveraged to address COVID-19 recovery and/or racial justice efforts, practitioners are invited to submit a narrative that explores how place-based arts and cultural strategies “moved the dial” in their community and situate it in the WE-Making framework by using key terms and concepts.

This funding opportunity intends to provide $1,000 to support 25 project submissions. Awards may be made to individuals or groups.

Selected submissions must center COVID-19 pandemic recovery and/or racial justice, situate their project within the WE-Making theory of change, be located in an urban setting and be serving folks in Black, Indigenous and additional communities of color (BIPOC). 

Good policy should account for how decisions will play out on the ground and affect people’s lives. One tool lawmakers can use that aims to shed light on these impacts before legislation is passed is the racial impact statement. Like environmental or fiscal impact statements, racial impact statements are predictive tools used in criminal justice policymaking to determine whether pending bills, if enacted, are likely to create or exacerbate disparate outcomes among people of different races or ethnicities.

Racial impact statements can build a critical check for systemic racism into the justice policymaking process and help chart a more intentional and equitable course. This virtual event will feature experts from Urban, The Sentencing Project, and the National Juvenile Justice Network, as well as Maryland State Delegate Jazz Lewis and Wayne Ford, the former Iowa state representative who led passage of the nation’s first racial impact statement legislation. Together they will explore how states can effectively use racial impact statements to achieve reform.

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The November 2021 Mental Well-being and Resilience Learning Community is happening on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 pm. 

Since 2017, the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute has sponsored the Minneapolis chapter of the national organization Coming to the Table (CTTT). CTTT racial healing and equity talking circles create safe spaces to hear stories, uncover history, build relationships, and heal from racial violence and trauma.  Talking circles help build life-giving power in our communities amidst the uncertainty and vulnerability we face.  CTTT invites descendants of the enslaved, slave owners, settlers, indigenous communities, and all those interested in engaging in safe constructive dialogue to envision just and truthful communities. The circles are designed to heal racial wounds from historical trauma and collective trauma that continues today.  In 2020 we grew the CTTT circles in partnership with Normandale College, the City of Minneapolis, and community partners in Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington Counties. Over 700 individuals have participated in one of our five monthly talking circles. Learn how Peacebuilding launched this initiative, how our CTTT partnerships have evolved, and how CTTT is addressing key organizational equity goals.  We will also discuss the organizational and community outcomes associated with these community healing and equity circles.

REGISTER HERE!

Hamline's Center for Justice and Law presents our virtual Fall conference Colorism and Skin Lightening: Addressing an Epidemic of Mercury Poisoning in MN featuring local, national, and international advocates, community members, and leaders on Friday, December 3rd 10:00am-2:00pm CST.

Join us for an in-depth conversation around colorism, racism, and skin lightening that centers the experience of community members while addressing the skin lightening industry in MN and beyond. This four-hour event will include a series of panels, an International Keynote Speaker, and conversations with cross-sector leaders, advocates, scholars, and community members. Our first panel gives space for those with Im/migrant and Refugee backgrounds to discuss root causes of skin lightening such as colorism and structural racism. Our last panel will highlight the advocacy efforts underway in Minnesota and globally to elevate awareness on the present and future state of the Skin Lightening Industry. Stay tuned for the final speaker announcement.

Click here to register!

The RVPHTC works to strengthen the capacity of the region's public health workforce by assessing training needs, responding to those needs through the development and delivery of distance-based continuing education, and engaging students from across the region in public health practice.This work is done in partnership with Community-Based Training Partners and Technical Assistance Providers.

To learn more about RVPHTC and see a full listing of trainings, visit the Region V Public Health Training Center website.

Environmental public health data can be used to inform policies, change behavior and help communities uncover issues to develop solutions and protections for the hazards, exposures and socioeconomic factors that influence our health.

Use the MN Public Health Data Access Portal to find environmental issues, trends, geographic patterns and disparities in Minnesota.

Check it out here!

It is the time of year for the annual Overcoming Racism Conference put on by the FREC (Facilitating Racial Equity) Collaborative: Friday, November 12, 8:00 am – 4:45 pm and Saturday, November 13, 9:00 am – 3:45 pm. The theme this year is “The Fierce Urgency for Transformation Now!"

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On January 6, 2021, we witnessed an insurrection. Even though only one gun shot was fired, live seditious acts by white supremacists and white nationalists tried to stop the America democratic process and silence the majority of America’s votes with force and violence. Even though the insurrection failed, it exposed America’s racist tendencies and what happens when we have over the years turned a blind eye to the realities of not honestly and fully confronting America’s original sin. We have an opportunity in 2021 to take back America’s “ideal” of being the land of the free and the home of the brave, governed by and for the people. “(That), We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all *(humans) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

We must move away from a self-perpetuating systemic racism in America that continues to fuel white supremacy, exploitation, oppressions, inequities, and brutalities on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) populations. The 2021 Overcoming Racism Conference is dedicated to the dismantling of these systems, structures, and cultures that are enablers of racism. We cannot slow down. We must move forward with a Fierce Urgency for Transformation Now!

An estimated 80 million Americans currently lack access to dental care. As oral health is essential to the overall health and well-being of an individual, the high volume of those without access can have potentially devastating health consequences such as an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, chronic diseases, diabetes, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Three main barriers to accessing dental care include coverage, provider shortages, and cultural barriers to oral health. In this webinar, we will hear from leaders in the field of oral health who are working to reduce disparities in access to and quality of care. 

Speakers will discuss:

• Federal initiatives to reduce health disparities and advance oral health equity, while furthering oral health in pediatric populations
• A health plan foundation’s investment, in collaboration with the Duke Endowment, to improve oral health in the Carolinas, including in rural communities and school-based programs
• Interprofessional approaches to integrate oral health into education and care delivery models