3.11: Actions that work toward equality and health

One example to consider is the community training efforts of the Center for Health Equity. This Center (mentioned in the Unnatural Causes video) works in Louisville to identify and solve local problems of health inequities.

• The Center engages residents in dialogue, encourages residents to document their concerns using photography and other methods, and aims to address those concerns.
• For example, they work to improve the kinds of food sold in corner stores.
• Can you find fresh, locally-grown organic produce at a reasonable price in your neighborhood?

David Williams in the unnatural Causes, In Sickness and In Wealth video:

"Social policy is health policy. Economic policy is health policy. Education policy is health policy."

In Northern California, a group of public health departments came together to examine health disparities and the social determinants of health. What they came up with was the BARHII report on Health Inequities in the Bay Area. Like in Unnatural Causes, the Bay Area public health departments examined the health of local communities, and found that where you lives affects how healthy you are.

They highlight what public health departments can do about it. These are some of the actions they describe:

• Work with communities on capacity building - through trainings and workshops, or through public discussions about health inequities.
• Partner with community organizing groups that are tackling things like home foreclosures, toxic waste sites, and lack of jobs.
• Improve schools and in particular find ways to prevent the epidemic of drop-outs from poor communities of color.
• Examine land use and demand a health analysis (not just an economic analysis) when big new projects - like ports, highways, bridges, factories - are being developed.
• Improve the physical environment through reducing the use of diesel fuels and controlling pollution.
• Support campaigns to increase the minimum wage, and to set a "living wage" for cities and counties so that working people can afford the basics of a healthy life.

There are many proposals regarding ways to reduce income inequality floating around in US politics now -- for instance, raising taxes on those with incomes over $10 million a year, raising the minimum wage, or incentivizing the creation of better-paying jobs. The "Green New Deal" is one such idea, proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What have you heard about these proposals? What do you think might work? (You can respond in this week's Discussion.)

Want to hear about a local initiative that made a big impact on educational outcomes -- which are closely linked to heatlh? Change happening right here in San Francisco! This was something small -- adding an ethnic studies class in 9th grade -- that had a big impact. You can listen to this OPTIONAL interview I did with David Ko, a Teacher at Washington High, and Emily Penner, a Stanford University researcher, talking about the surprising results they found. Action toward equality sometimes can be huge (the Civil Rights Movement), and other times can be quite small and local, yet still have a big effect. LISTEN (optional):

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