Root Cause Collective

Public health and social justice student organization at the School of Urban Public Health at Hunter College

[rootcausehunter]

Presentation by Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones

See the recorded webinar here

[fergusonresponse]

WOMEN’S FREEDOM CONFERENCE

SUN OCT 25 - 9AM - 9PM ET

The 2015 Women’s Freedom Conference, the first all-digital, online conference organized by and featuring women of color from around the world, will take place on Sunday, October 25, 2015.

This innovative conference will center and amplify the unique voices and experiences of underrepresented women who have been disenfranchised beyond gender alone– women of color whose identities are intersectional and whose womanhood is shaped and defined along those intersections. In partnership with Black Star Media, the Conference will usher in a new era of conferencing that provides more access to quality content to more people around the world.

“We at BSMdotCo are honored to partner with the inaugural Women’s Freedom Conference. As advocates for gender equity through the use of technology, we support the work of so many women that inspire us professionally and personally.” – Kortney Ziegler, PhD, co-founder, Black Star Media.

With over 25 dynamic speakers representing five continents, the Women’s Freedom Conference will center Women of Color– our success, our concerns, our work, our activism, and our existence as vital contributors to making the world a better place.

Our goals include providing practical, real-world information from a diverse group of women, many of whom are actively working to improve the lives of women of color around the world. We want to make this information available to as many people as possible and we believe that utilizing modern technology is the best way to do so. Participants will engage in conversations, seminars, and direct actions focused on the empowerment of women of color by building solidarity and promoting sisterhood.

The mission of the conference is to center Women of Color– our success, our concerns, our work, our activism, and our existence as vital contributors to making the world a better place. We want to make sure that women of color from around the world have a space to speak out and be heard, to teach others and to learn from each other, and to inform people of the work that they are doing in their respective communities.

[rootcausehunter]

Watch: Racism and Its Impact on Children’s Health

Organized by American Academy of Pediatrics and American Public Health Association

[rootcausehunter]

Letter from Alameda County Health Officer Muntu Davis, MD, MPH

[think-progress]

Freddie Gray Shooting Exposes Lead Public Health Crisis

More than a week after his death from severe spinal cord injuries sustained under police custody, the circumstances of Freddie Gray Jr.’s life, particularly his upbringing in the inner city, are coming to surface through court documents and testimonies of family, friends, and attorneys.

[pubhealth]

Games That Teach You Something About Public Health

By Beth Skwarecki (PLOS Blogs

Spent: This game is for anybody who feels like they know how they would live if they were poor. Just don’t buy as much stuff, right? The game, created by an ad agency for Urban MInistries of Durham, starts you off with $1000 in the bank and asks you to choose a job. From there, you have 30 days’ worth of expenses and decisions. You win if you can make it through the month without going broke. 

Vax

This is a short, fast-paced game that pits you against an infectious disease. Your playing field: a network of susceptible people.

You get a head start, with a limited number of vaccinations you can give before the disease starts to spread. When you vaccinate somebody, they drop out of the network, their dot disappearing and the network breaking apart. Once the outbreak begins, your only tool is quarantine, which likewise drops people out of the network.

Strategies that win: vaccinating (or quarantining) people who have the most connections, which has the biggest impact on the route the disease can travel. If you can completely split the network into pieces, that helps you too. But beware: When you reach the “hard” level, you’ll find that some people in the network refuse to be vaccinated. The game was developed by Marcel Salathe’s epidemiology research group.

Gut Check – This one was designed by microbiologist Jonathan Eisen. It’s a “real” game, the website says, but “one might accidentally learn about concepts such as antibiotic resistance, hospital-acquired infections, prebiotics, probiotics, opportunistic infections and more.”

In this card game (which regretfully I have not played yet), you and friends each try to develop your own microbiome, filling it with beneficial species—but you can also play pathogens on your opponents, pass around antibiotic resistance plasmids, and spread germs in crowded places with the “airplane trip” and “go to work sick” cards. There’s even a homeopathy card for those turns when you’d rather not play anything at all.

The game is available as free downloads to print, and the makers are working on a professionally printed version too.

(From PLOS Blogs)

[rootcausehunter]

Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis

By: Chandra L. Ford, PhD, and Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, PhD. (American Journal of Public Health, 2010;100:S30-S35).

Racial scholars argue that racism produces rates of morbidity,  mortality, and overall well-being that vary depending on socially assigned race. Eliminating racism is therefore central to achieving health equity, but this requires new paradigms that are responsive to structural racism’s contemporary influence on health, health inequities, and research. Critical Race Theory is an emerging transdisciplinary, race-equity  methodology that  originated  in  legal studies and is grounded in social justice. Critical Race Theory’s tools for conducting research and practice are intended to elucidate contemporary racial phenomena, expand the vocabulary with which to discuss complex racial concepts, and challenge racial hierarchies. We introduce Critical Race Theory to the public health community, highlight key Critical Race Theory characteristics (race consciousness, emphases on contemporary societal dynamics and socially marginalized groups, and  praxis  between  research and practice) and describe Critical Race Theory’s contribution to a study on racism and HIV testing among African Americans.

read full article

[rootcausehunter]

Health = where you live + education + access to healthcare + justice system

To fix our justice system, we need to go beyond talking about police and prisons. We need to focus on health. - APHA

[pubhealth]

Food advertising targeted to Hispanic youth - Report Summary

From UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity

[pubhealth]

Food advertising targeted to Black youth - Report Summary

(From UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity)

[rootcausehunter]

Sharpen your community organizing skills. At Citizens Committee, we don’t just give out grants. We host free community workshops on great ways to mobilize your neighbors, raise funds (beyond our own grants), navigate city government, and more. We share stories, tools, and tips custom-tailored to meet the needs of grassroots groups—and listen to your experiences. Our workshops are designed with resident-led groups in mind; each session draws from the ideas and experiences that you bring.

RSVP IS REQUIRED

To register, please fill out the form in the link above or contact:

Imani at [email protected] or 212-822-9567

[rootcausehunter]

TEDxEmory

“Allegories on Race and Racism”

By: Dr. Camara Jones, president elect of the American Public Health Association

[rootcausehunter]

Ensuring good health takes prevention

From 1900 to 2000, the average life expectancy in the U.S. increased by 30 years, from 47 to 77 years. Surprisingly to most people, only five of these years of increased life are attributed to medical advances while 25 years are due to public health efforts such as immunizations, clean water, healthier foods, tobacco-cessation efforts, road safety and so on. Public health remains important today, and our goal is to become the healthiest nation (we are not currently). To do this, we must invest in prevention and wellness to address the social and environmental factors that affect everyone's health. The Prevention and Public Health Fund is a unique opportunity to do just that.

[rootcausehunter]

“Public health helps kids grow up healthy and helps build strong communities. Public health saves lives and saves money. But it is often tricky describing public health and its impact in concrete terms, which is a critical step in building support for these important programs. “ - American Public Health Association  

[rootcausehunter]

If you missed the first webinar Naming and Addressing Racism you can watch the recording online

The next webinar is on Tuesday, August 4 at 2pm EST.  No Safety, No Health: A Conversation about Race, Place and Preventing Violence 

Register here

[rootcausehunter]

The American Public Health Association hosts new webinar series on the impact of racism on our nation's health

Webinar # 1 | Naming and Addressing Racism:  A Primer Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH, and Camara P. Jones, MD, MPH, PhD July 21,  2015 | 2 p.m. EST

This kick-off webinar featuring APHA’s executive director, president and president-elect will take a look at some of the nation’s leading health inequities. APHA President Shiriki Kumanyika will discuss how racism is one of the most challenging tools of social stratification we face when trying to improve the health of the public. She also will reflect on the evidence and research needs related to how racism limits our ability to make America the healthiest nation. APHA President-Elect Camara Jones will tell the Gardener's Tale and present a framework for understanding racism on three levels. This framework is useful for understanding the basis for race-associated differences in health, designing effective interventions to eliminate those differences and engaging in a national conversation.

Register for Webinar #1

Webinar #2 | Community Violence Well-Being August 4, 2015 | 2 p.m. EST

Webinar #3 | Unequal Treatment: Disparities in Access, Quality and Care August 18, 2015 | 2 p.m. EST

Webinar #4 | Racism: The Silent Partner in High School Dropout and Health Disparities September 1, 2015 | 2 p.m. EST

[rootcausehunter]

Support the production of this great film and project “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds” on the struggle for justice since the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in Mexico. One of our colleagues, Daisy, has been fervently organizing around this issue both in Mexico and the US. Please support! 

To donate follow this link