Explore Health Equity and Social Justice Topics

Latest Resources

Reports

Funders Together for Housing Justice: March 2026

A new publication has been released: Caring Collectively: How Health Funders Can Step into the Movement for Housing Justice to End Homelessness. It is designed to support how health-focused foundations can engage in housing justice work in ways that align with their existing priorities.

Read More →

39 Funders Collaborate on Comment Letter in Support of Health Professionals

The U.S. Department of Education recently published a proposed rule that would narrow the definition of which graduate programs qualify as “professional degrees” for federal student loan purposes, affecting how much students in certain health fields may borrow. Finalizing this rule will result in reduced access to care (especially in rural and other underserved communities), by making graduate education less affordable, disrupting health workforce pipelines, and creating obstacles for students to enter essential health and human-services professions.

Read More →

What Do We Stand For?

One year ago, as we were just one month into the new administration, I wrote that “At a moment when so much has been described as ‘unprecedented,’ and so much of what we value is being attacked, we need to ask ourselves as individuals, organizations, and a field, what do we stand for? What values do we hold, and what will we do and say to defend them?” Today, the answers to these questions are needed more urgently than ever.

Read More →

Medicaid and Community Violence: Pathways to Sustainable Care

American cities are witnessing historic declines in gun violence. In recent years, cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Chicago have all seen precipitous drops in homicides, with some reaching multi-decade record lows (Washington Post 2025). While there are many causes of this decline, experts in the field point to community violence intervention as driving the trend.

Read More →
Reports

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation: January 2026

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation released a chart pack which provides an overview of the public coverage programs in Massachusetts, explains the key Medicaid and Marketplace provisions in H.R.1, and elevates what is known about how these provisions will impact the coverage landscape and the health care delivery system in Massachusetts.

Read More →

Practicing What We Preach: Three Tips for Putting Equity at the Heart of a Successful Application Process

Every step of the grant application process
— from initial outreach to final award notification — provides opportunities for funders to either reinforce inequities or dismantle them. The grant application process is often the first barrier that organizations encounter when seeking funding. If designed without an intentional focus on equity, the application process can advantage well-resourced organizations, while disadvantaging equally or better qualified organizations that have fewer resources.

Read More →

Reports and Publications

Back to the Beginning: Obesity Prevention in Early Childhood

Recent efforts in the field of child obesity prevention have placed emphasis on the school-age population, and with good reason. Schools present a unique opportunity to reach large groups of children on a regular basis with healthy foods and physical activity. However, about 10 percent of children come to kindergarten already obese, indicating that more attention needs to focus on the period of life before school.

Read More →

Racism: Combating the Root Causes of Health Disparities

Reducing health disparities in communities of color has been a public health priority in the United States for the past decade. To date, however, substantial improvements have not been achieved. Even more troubling is the evidence that disparities persist even when overall health trends improve.

Read More →

Intervening Early to Address Children’s Health Disparities

In the United States, children of color and those in low-income families continue to lag behind white and affluent children on nearly every health indicator. In addition, many of these indicators and conditions, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, and asthma, can have long-term influences on children’s healthy development and functioning.

Read More →