Beyond the Headlines: Towards a New Narrative for Health Philanthropy in Haiti
Contrary to the narrative that all philanthropic investments have been ineffective in Haiti, Partners In Health, Build Health International, and Health Equity International have had immense positive impacts on the health sector in Haiti over the last decade. With sustained funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, these nongovernmental organizations are committed to tackling systemic inequities embedded in the health care system.
Filling Youth Mental Health Gaps by Funding Innovation
The gap is widening between mental health care and our nation’s youth. The continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustices, and climate change are deepening this crevice and weighing on young people. The U.S. Surgeon General issued a stark warning on youth mental health, and doctors, hospitals, mental health organizations, and young people are also sounding the alarm.
Multiplying Funder Impact Through Multisector Collaborations: Models for Creating Racial and Health Equity
Multisector collaborations epitomize the expression “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Working together toward common goals, organizations from different sectors that listen and work directly with communities can multiply their impact compared to what they can accomplish working separately. Because of this, funders too can expand their impact by investing in and encouraging these multisector collaborations that serve as engines for lifting up community voices and promoting equity.
Reducing Pollution: Critical Pathway for Cancer Prevention
Health professionals and health advocacy groups are learning how they can elevate environmental chemicals as an important element of cancer prevention, including in research design, clinical practice, policy advocacy, and in cancer initiatives such as the Beau Biden Moonshot and states’ 5-year cancer prevention and control plans. When health leaders are given the opportunity to examine barriers to cancer prevention, including those they may contribute to, they gain confidence in their ability—and responsibility—to use their power as trusted messengers to call for dramatic reductions in carcinogens.
How Local Health Departments Can Commit to Transformative Change through Racial Healing
In this new era of public health care and practice, as our global community continues to endure the impact of a pandemic, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to ensure we do not fall back into old patterns. This is our chance as a larger health-focused collective to use our expertise, influence, and resources to change the landscape of health. Governmental agencies, nonprofits, clinical and non-clinical groups, and funders have an important role in the future of public health.
Incarceration and Public Health: Going Bold to Achieve Health Equity
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of public health has sprinted a marathon to address the ongoing crisis — we have implemented mass vaccination plans, pushed back against misinformation campaigns, and taken action in the face of slashed budgets and outright assaults on our lives. But as a public health researcher and advocate, I believe there is a critical place where we have fallen short, and with dire consequences: connecting the dots between incarceration and health.
Investing in Nutrition Security Post-Pandemic
During the first year of the pandemic, despite being a rural agricultural region with over 4,000 small farms, the food insecurity rate across the North Country counties of New York rose from 11 to 15 percent. In March 2020, with funding from New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth), the Adirondack Foundation, and the Cloudsplitter Foundation, AdkAction partnered with the Hub on the Hill, a nonprofit food hub, to launch its Emergency Food Packages (EFP) project to assist local families facing food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EFP succeeded in delivering thousands of healthy, locally produced food packages to people in need while also supporting hard working farmers across the region.
On the Precipice: Why Health Funders Should Care about Abortion Access
Reproductive health and justice in the United States are at a crossroads. We are seeing positive developments such as growing (though still inadequate) attention to maternal health and reinstatement of the family planning safety net after years of reductions in access to these services. We invite funders focused on health more broadly to join us in an effort to support the dignity of women and families; protect women’s lives; and mitigate the health, economic, and social harms that can result from being denied an abortion.
Perinatal Safe Zone: Supporting Women-led Birth Equity Work
We believe that creating a Perinatal Safe Zone will require multisector mobilization at the regional level. A mobilization at this level will require participation from hospitals, legislators, and state agencies, while centering Black and Brown led organizations and leaders working to achieve stable and affordable quality housing; welcoming, flexible, and equitable workspaces, with paid parental leave and universal child care services; a just food system; safe and walkable neighborhoods; a caring and supportive network of community members; and access to holistic and culturally congruent wellness practices.
Less Criminalization = Better Health + More Justice
Last year, New York State passed the most sweeping parole reform measure in the country. The Less Is More Community Supervision Revocation Reform Act has far-reaching implications for the health and liberty of tens of thousands of people every year, by making critical changes in how the state handles noncriminal violations of parole conditions.