Watch Webinar: How to Work with Local Leaders to Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis

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Decades of explicit and implicit racism in social, economic, and political systems have led to inequitable outcomes in communities of color with heavy burdens of toxic stress, disease, and premature death.

That’s why leaders across the country are adopting formal resolutions to declare racism a public health crisis and committing to specific policy changes.

We at Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio created to an action pack to help.

On March 17, 2022, we are cohosting a webinar, “How to Work with Local Leaders to Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis” with the Network for Public Health Law to share resources in our action pack to help you connect with local advocates of color, draft a resolution, start a conversation with local leaders, and build support for a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis.

UPDATE: Watch the webinar here

About the Webinar on Racism as a Public Health Crisis

Here are the details:

• DATE: Thursday, March 17, 2022
• TIME: 1-2 p.m. EST (10:00-11:00 a.m. PST)
• HOST: Network for Public Health Law
• COHOST: Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio
• SPEAKERS: Dawn Hunter, Director, Southeastern Region Office, Network for Public Health Law; Amanda Merck, Research Area Specialist, Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio; and Dr. Linsey Grove, President of the League of Women Voters of St. Petersburg, FL.

Merck will cover the new Salud America! action pack, “Create a Meaningful Resolution on Racism as a Public Health Crisis,” for which she is providing technical assistance.

Hunter will detail the work being done by a soon-to-be named Collaborative that is bringing together a multi-disciplinary group of partners and organizations to work collectively to raise awareness about racism as a public health issue and to provide tools and resources to communities working to advance health and racial equity.

Hunter has been organizing the Collaborative, whose members include Salud America!, the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity at Saint Louis University, the American Public Health Association (APHA), the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), The Praxis Project, Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG), ChangeLab Solutions, CEO Action for Racial Equity, and several other nonprofits, health agencies, and more.

Dr. Grove will speak about the effort to get the City of St. Petersburg, FL to declare racism a public health crisis, which was approved in August 2021, and contrast that with current efforts to work with Pinellas County, FL to also issue a declaration. She will also share perspective on related efforts to advance racial equity in St. Petersburg, including a structural racism study commissioned by the City and led by the University of South Florida in partnership with community members.

Together, the panelists also will cover:

• How health and racism are linked
• The need to dismantle racism
• Efforts by legal, social justice, and public health advocates to advance health equity and anti-racism action
• How you can use the resources in the new action to create a meaningful resolution on racism as a public crisis

Why We Need to Dismantle Racism

Health and racism are inextricably linked, harming individuals and communities of color.

Racism operates implicitly and explicitly on systemic, institutional, and interpersonal levels, all of which operate throughout time and across generations. This creates inequities in the places we live, learn, work, and play, including inequitable access to quality education, livable wages, healthy food, affordable housing, and safe transportation options.

Systemic racial injustices created opportunity for some and barriers for others.

Thus, Black people, Latinos, and other people of color face disparities in social, economic, and health outcomes.

It’s time to dismantle racism, starting with a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis.

The new Salud America! four-step action pack has the tools you will need to:

1. Connect with community leaders
2. Draft a resolution
3. Ask elected officials to take action
4. Build community support

Join the webinar to learn more.