Impact Brief CEO Message – March 2022
Spring often is a time of new beginnings and in that spirit, we celebrate many important observances over the coming weeks that allow us the opportunity to revisit and recommit to important areas of health equity.
Last week, we acknowledged LGBTQIA+ Health Awareness Week (read our statement), and National Public Health Week is next week. Also starting tomorrow, April 1, we celebrate National Minority Health Month. All of these observances allow us the opportunity to think about our work in different ways than we do throughout the rest of the year. They encourage us to ask harder questions of ourselves about how we could be more equitable, more inclusive, and more effective in our work to reduce the burden of chronic disease within all communities.
In our statement for LGBTQ Health Awareness Week, we called upon state legislatures to reject the historic number of discriminatory measures that had been brought to state capitols that would be extremely detrimental to the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other historically oppressed gender and sexual minorities. We called upon our partners and colleagues to support greater research into and understanding of the complex health needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. We reminded ourselves and our broader field that if we are not for health for all, we cannot achieve health for all.
In honor of National Minority Health Month, we will take a journey together through our Health Equity Journal, a tool created by our own health equity experts, Robyn Taylor, Zunera Mirza, Tiffany Pertillar, and Gwendolyn Williams, to support a deeper look at what health equity is and how we can infuse an equity lens into our personal and professional lives. Each week, we will email you a new chapter to explore. Our April General Member Webinars and Journal Club topics also will focus on systemic racism. Please join us for:
· April 14, 3-4 p.m. ET: General Member Webinar – Addressing Systemic Racism in Clinical Preventive Services: Transformation Led by the US Preventive Services Task Force. Register Now.
· April 21, 3-3:30 p.m. ET: Journal Club – The article we will discuss is “Organizing for Black Lives and Funding COVID-19 Relief: Community Responses to Systemic Racism and Imagining Public Health 4.0” Register Now.
· April 28, 3-4 p.m. ET: General Member Webinar – Addressing Food and Nutrition Insecurity: The Role of Indigenous Sovereignty, Racial Justice, and Health Equity. Register Now.
As for National Public Health Service Week, we hope you will join us on social media to #BoostYourCommunity for health. We will be sharing how we are working in a variety of areas to promote health, resiliency, and community cooperation during COVID and beyond. This includes untangling the intimate connections between racism and health, creating a strong and capable public health workforce for current and future generations, advancing healthier communities, and how we are closing the equity gap. We hope you will follow us on our social media channels to join the discussion (Twitter: @NACDDInfo; Facebook (@ChronicDiseaseDirectors); LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/nacdd).
If you would like to be a part of and help to inform our efforts to lead anti-racist and inclusive public health thought leadership, NACDD would be delighted to have you join the NACDD Health Equity Council. Please email info@chronicdisease.org for more information about the Council, current projects, and the meeting schedule.
We look forward to your participation as we celebrate you, recognize our communities, and push our work forward.