See if you are eligible to participate in HEI’s upcoming Advocacy Training!
With the generous support of Macy's Inc., Health Equity Initiative is holding an interactive training webinar for community leaders and CBOs to strengthen advocacy and policy communication skills and increase the reach of community-driven solutions in policy and institutional settings in support of health equity. As for all HEI’s activities, this training webinar will be highly interactive and participatory.  We look forward to hearing about your work and co-designing solutions to meet your advocacy goals.

Interested? Next Steps:
1) Fill out this form if you and your organization would like to apply to participate. The deadline for applications is June 11!
2) Fill out this poll to inform us of your availability for the following dates: *June 20th, 21st, or 22nd from 5pm - 7pm, EST.

When discussing racial equity issues, it is well known that overt racism, like hate speech and hate crimes, directly negatively impacts the well-being of the racial diaspora that is targeted. However, what is often less discussed are the many implicit and insidious ways that continuous exposure to racism influence long-term negative outcomes. For example, Asian Americans are 60% less likely than non-Hispanic whites (1) to receive mental health treatment. Vietnamese Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians are nearly three times less likely than white Americans (2) to reach out to mental health services when they need it. Southeast Asians are forced to independently pave their own way (3) to solving mental health issues due to their inability to find culturally informed healthcare providers. The barrier to accessing mental health care permeates into physical health as well. Moreover, the National Library of Medicine found that 57% of women from Cambodia (4) reported challenges in finding suitable medical care in the U.S. due to a lack of interpreters.

 Join us in observing National Minority Health Month by connecting with relevant HEI resources and exploring dedicated resources to mark this month!
​At Health Equity Initiative, we are advocates for improved health outcomes for each and every group of people. This work includes uplifting groups who have been historically marginalized and underserved. This year, the theme for National Minority Health Month is Better Health Through Better Understanding. This theme highlights the importance of promoting health equity through improved health literacy and language access and reduced health disparities, specifically in historically marginalized communities. 

“Equality is giving everyone a pair of shoes, 
​Equity is giving everyone a pair of shoes that fits.”
​~ unknown

The fight for reproductive dignity, care, and autonomy is neither new nor singularly faceted. Inequities exist in health outcomes by a person’s sex and/or gender identity, which in turn impacts gender equity, a major determinant of health equity. These ongoing health inequities have been highlighted, especially in recent months. In fact, women are currently faced with significant adversity in relation to reproductive rights, which ultimately affects the health of all women, both physically and mentally. Women are experiencing ongoing attacks on their reproductive rights and are losing the ability to choose outcomes for themselves. This is in addition to other ongoing crises, such as the disproportionate rates of adverse maternal health outcomes within the Black community and other groups that have been marginalized - or experience disadvantage and bias - as the result of related health, racial, and social inequities. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused hardship and many stressful situations for young people in the United States. Amongst many other challenges, the mental health of many college-aged students has drastically been affected by the pandemic. College-aged students, between the ages of 17 and 22, have reported an increase in feelings of anxiety and depression since 2020. Main causes of such increase include social isolation as well as the health effects and the stress related to a long state of uncertainty. It is also difficult for many to receive adequate support from mental health professionals.

As we enter 2022 with the hope for an increased emphasis on advancing health equity in our society, we want to mark today the 6th National Day of Racial Healing, which takes place annually on the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and seeks to bridge racial divides to transform our communities for our children and future generations. This national day of truth telling, dialogue, and collective purpose is part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (THRT) efforts, and a much needed reminder on the importance of standing together against racism and promoting healing.  

by Tina Wong, Melanie Mc Dermott, Toni Lewis, and Renata Schiavo

​In the United States, local governments play a key role in providing, promoting and regulating health services, economic advancement, education, land use and transportation, and safe neighborhoods with clean air and water.  Even absent explicit discrimination, when that role is affected by implicit bias—the attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously affect understanding and behavior—it leads to unequal access and unequal allocation of resources in these critical domains.  The ability to vote, approvals of FHA loans, and access to quality education, greenspace and more, are just a few areas contributing to our overall health and wellbeing in which municipal bias continues to produce inequitable outcomes. Communities of color, low-income groups, people living with disabilities, LGBTQI+ groups, immigrants, and other marginalized social groups experience barriers to critical opportunities as a result. These inequitable outcomes are further reinforced by structural racism and other forms of social discrimination that exist in biased policies and practices in our local governments.