Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to participate and be a Fellow in the PolicyLink Ambassadors for Health Equity. We were a cohort of 19 phenomenal housing, health, civil and human rights activists. We had a few projects to work on and our final project was done as a group project. My group was made up of some fantastic people from around the country. Each group was made up of fantastic people but of course I will uplift my group as I am writing about my experience. We had a few weeks to create a presentation about how we would like to see this country view and engage in housing justice and health advocacy. The program is generously supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – RWJF, whose vision for a national Culture of Health drives the initiative.
My group consisted of some “bad ass” housing/social justice activists: Jacqueline Pata, CEO of the HaaYaakawu Financial Corporation (HYFC) and Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA); John Washington, Organizer and Political Educator, Peoples Action; Sami Jo Difuntorum, Housing Executive Director, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Tatewin Means, Executive Director, Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and me – I am the Director of National Policy for Center for Disability Rights . Our advisor for this work was the amazing Saneta deVuono-powell, Co-founder, Groundworks Consulting.
We worked on our presentation for weeks and were given a small funding stream that we used to hire a phenomenal artist to be a graphic recorder for us – to put our words into images. Thank you so much Abby VanMuijen for your patience and brilliance on our project.
On our final days of the Fellowship each group presented their project and through the amazing help of the PolicyLink team we were able to put all of these transformative ideas into final reports both in a visual imaging and narrative documentation. This experience was a much needed process for me especially during this horrific pandemic. It was sad that we never got an opportunity to meet in-person to “touch, feel and interact” with each other. We used technology and yes this work can be done via all of these platforms for meeting virtually but honestly there is still NOTHINGthat takes the place of in-person/people to people interactions. Especially when organizing. I am honored and yes proud of the work that all of my Cohort3 engaged in and completed. The brilliance in that group is beyond measure. I do hope that you will read and view our final reports; take information back to your community and tell all you know about our transformative ideas.
Please review the information below and send this out to all you know!
From PolicyLink website:
During the one-year program, ambassadors will leverage and learn from each other’s expertise, align around a vision for housing and health equity, and propel their work collectively toward more power in the housing justice movement. Watch the trailer below, then read and watch the ambassadors’ full vision in the Call to Action: Picturing a Transformative Future for Housing and Health.
https://www.policylink.org/our-work/community/health-equity/2021-ambassadors
The 2021 Ambassadors represent different approaches to housing justice, including grassroots tenant organizing, civil rights advocacy, culturally-centered housing development and community land ownership. They have worked on developing and enacting strong protections to endure through the COVID-19 recovery. This includes bans on evictions, rent and mortgage forgiveness tied to relief for affordable housing providers and small landlords, and housing first for people without access to safe and healthy shelter.
These 19 leaders will take part in the year-long program to embolden them to share ideas and experiences, forge new alliances, generate new solutions, and promote a Culture of Health within their own work and across networks.
To read about all 19 leaders go here:
Meet the new Ambassadors for Health Equity
https://www.policylink.org/our-work/community/health-equity/2021-ambassadors
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Resources:
Link to the final report:
PolicyLink Health Ambassadors: Cohort3 (2020-2021)
Call to Action: Picturing a Transformative Future for Housing and Health
file:///Users/lesliebaldwin/Downloads/Equitable_Housing_and_Health_042522.pdf
Link to the Trailer for the vision presentation: https://www.policylink.org/our-work/community/health-equity/2021-ambassadors
Link to vision presentation:
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