This series of print and podcast interviews, "Creating Healthy Opportunities: Conversations with Adolescent Health Experts," features: Shay Bilchik, JD; Jane Brown, PhD; Angela Diaz, MD, MPH; Abigail English, JD, and Richard Kreipe, MD. All interviews were conducted by Karen Brown, a public radio reporter and freelance journalist who specializes in health care. A winner of numerous national awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Award and Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize, she most recently received the 2008-09 Kaiser Media Fellowship in Health. Brown’s work frequently appears on NPR, in national magazines and newspapers. The interviews were commissioned by the Partners in Program Planning for Adolescent Health (PIPPAH) initiative of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). PIPPAH grantees include: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Bar Association, the American College of Preventive Medicine, CityMatCH, the Healthy Teen Network, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation. |
A series of issue briefs were developed between 2003-2005, to assist members in learning about fundamental issues affecting the health of women, reviewing the leading health topics impacting urban women, and most importantly, taking action to ensure healthy urban women. A Compendium of Promising Practices in Urban Women's Health was also completed in the Spring of 2005.
As a group, the series of Urban Women's Health (UWH) Publications looked beyond reproductive health to address the health of urban women across the lifespan. Each was written in collaboration with consultant, Helene Kent, and each focused on issues (Overview of Urban Women's Health, Resources and Tools and Leadership) defined by the Urban Women's Health Subcommittee, which concluded its activities in 2005.
This paper outlines a number of factors that influence wome's health and which must be considered when developing a Women's Preventive Health Framework.
To address disparities in infant mortality, CityMatCH, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), and the National Healthy Start Association (NHSA) - with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation - created the Partnership to Eliminate Disparities in Infant Mortality. The purpose of this project is to eliminate racial inequities contributing to infant mortality within U.S. urban areas. The first activity of the partnership was an eighteen-month long Action Learning Collaborative (ALC). The following six teams were selected through a competitive process to participate in the ALC from 2008-2010:
- Los Angeles, California
- Aurora, Colorado
- Pinellas County, Florida
- Chicago, Illinois
- Columbus, Ohio
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The emphasis of this team-based ALC is on innovative approaches to reducing racial inequities in infant mortality in urban communities, with particular attention paid to the impacts of racism. The report Taking the First Steps: Experiences of Six Community/State Teams Addressing Racism’s Impacts on Infant Mortality details the ALC process and the experiences of the participating teams. The companion document, Exercises for Team-Building and Community Action Planning: A Toolkit for MCH Leaders Addressing Racism's Impacts on Infant Mortality, includes all of the planning exercises used during the ALC.
For more information about PEDIM, contact Brenda Thompson (brendathompson@unmc.edu) or Sarena Dacus (smurrayp@unmc.edu)
This report aims to
- Examine the scientific basis for racism as a determinant of health status and health disparities, and institutional racism manifests in health care and health departments;
- Provide an overview of existing directions, options and resources for "Undoing Racism;" and,
- Outline a series of activities for a local public health-based Undoing Racism initiative, ranging from awareness to action.
An allegory can help to explain the impacts of racism in our society. "A gardener has two flower boxes, one which she knows to contain rich, fertile soil and the other which she knows to contain poor, rocky soil. She has seed for the same kind of flower, except some of the seed will produce pink blossoms and some of the seed will produce red blossoms. The gardener prefers red over pink, so she puts the red seed in the rich, fertile soil and the pink seed in the poor, rocky soil. Three weeks later, the red flowers look strong and healthy while the pink flowers look scrawny and scraggly. When fall comes, those flowers go to seed. The next year the same thing happens, and then those flowers go to seed. Year after year, the rains water, the sun shines, and the same thing happens. Finally, ten years later..."
