People need to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Covid-19. However, for the 27% of the U.S. private workforce with no paid sick leave, staying home isn’t an option, particularly for the full prescribed 14-day quarantine. That’s why a form of paid sick leave and family/childcare leave are part of a new $100 billion relief law, Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which also includes nutrition aid, unemployment health insurance, and free COVID-19 testing. Trump signed the new law on March 18, 2020. It goes into effect April 2, 2020. But the new law could leave out up to 19 million workers, roughly 12% of the workforce, including many low-income Latinos, women, and other vulnerable populations, experts say. Moreover, economists estimate that three ...
Elva Yañez—with her neighbors and allies—waged a campaign that has lasted over 15 years to preserve one of the last unprotected open green spaces in her Northeast Los Angeles community of El Sereno. Before working on healthy equitable land use issues, she worked in tobacco control. When she recognized similarities in the way tobacco companies and land developers fought to protect private interests from government regulation, she began using tobacco control tactics to fight for environmental justice. With the help of others, she led an effort to stop one particularly harmful residential development in her community that had serious public health and safety consequences. Throughout the campaign she knew she wanted to go upstream and address the systemic conditions that allowed ...
Time and again, statistics go to show that communities of color, including Latinos, face a rampant and widespread lack of access to quality healthcare. In this state of emergency that the U.S. faces with the outbreak of the current novel coronavirus, COVID-19, those disadvantages are worse than ever. Disadvantaged groups currently, and will continue to, experience burdens in receiving, affording, and managing medical treatment as the virus continues to spread. “Crises such as H1N1 and COVID-19 provide a mirror for our society and the actions we take — or fail to take,” writes Dr. Richard E. Besser, the president, and chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in the Washington Post. “Today, the United States in that mirror is one in which the risk of exposure ...
Have you ever encountered a child in need? This can come in many forms, including those who need financial, food, or even foster care assistance from the state. While most might think they probably don’t know such a child, experts say that’s likely not the case. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 51.7% of children lived in households that received some form of government assistance in 2017. Today, Dr. Kathy Fletcher, the President and CEO of Voices for Children of San Antonio, and State Representative of Texas’ 124 district, Ina Minjarez, join Salud Talks to discuss their work with children in crisis, and, what we all can do to provide our community’s children with a brighter future. Check out this discussion on the Salud Talks Podcast, Episode 22, "Children in ...
U.S.-born Latino youth with immigrant parents suffer "significantly increased" anxiety over immigration since the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, according to a recent study. Researchers in California and Arizona studied 397 U.S. citizen children of Latino immigrants. They compared children before the election at age 14 and after the election at age 16, to see if their concerns over immigration policy linked up to worse mental, physical health. Nearly half the youth worried "at least sometimes" about U.S. immigration policy. That included whether they'd be reported to immigration officials or their parents would be deported. Their health problems surged after the 2016 election, according to the study. "Fear and worry about the personal consequences of current U.S. ...
We want to see a United States that achieves health equity, where all people have a fair, just opportunity to live their healthiest lives. But so many people face social, environmental, and health injustices. So let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, to discuss the state of social justice and offer strategies on how we can all work together to achieve health equity for all! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: Strategies for Social Justice and Health Equity
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, March 17, 2020
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: The Association of American Medical Colleges (@AAMCtoday), Dr. Karey Sutton (@DR_KMSutton), Dr. Philip M. Alberti (@PM_Alberti)
HASHTAG: #SaludTues
OPTIONAL HASHTAGS: ...
A new Public Charge rule is part of U.S. immigration policy, as of Feb. 24, 2020. Supporters say it will protect taxpayers from overspending on welfare. They say it will help accept self-reliant, industrious immigrants. Detractors say it will inflame deportation fears among immigrants. They say it will cause immigrants to forgo needed food, housing vouchers, and health care—even if eligible. Here is what Latinos and all people should know about Public Charge.
1. What Is 'Public Charge'?
The Public Charge rule has served as an immigration policy since the 1880s. The rule sets up "grounds of inadmissibility." That is, it spells out reasons that a person could be denied a green card, visa, or admission" to the U.S., according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. A ...
Communities are increasingly concerned about the rise of poverty, homelessness, trauma, and opioids among children and families. However, few states address these issues by investing money in Head Start programs, which are proven to strengthen families, promote school readiness, and improve child health. The good news is that lawmakers in 14 states are investing over $400 million each budget cycle for local Head Start and Early Head Start programs, according to a new analysis by the National Head Start Association and Voices for Healthy Kids. These investments will help serve more kids─but millions are still left out.
Crisis of At-Risk Children and Families
Many children and families face difficult situations: persistent childhood poverty
the unrelenting opioid ...
Implicit bias against Latinos is jeopardizing the fairness of the U.S. criminal justice system, says a recent report. Latinos already comprise 53% of those charged with federal crimes. Now the fate of those defendants is increasingly complicated by the "behavior of defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, jurors, and probation and pre-trial service officers through implicit racial bias and racial stereotyping," according to Walter Gonçalves, a federal public defender in Arizona. Implicit bias can affect juries, bail, and sentencing. "Given this reality, defense attorneys should carefully study and become familiar with racial stereotyping and implicit bias. Only in this way will they be able to educate others in the system," Gonçalves writes in a report published in Seattle ...
