Building Community Power for Racial and Health Equity

We are living in unprecedented times where parallel health, economic and racial justice crises call on us all to use our power to change systems that impact all of our day to day lives. Communities are building power to address issues ranging from housing instability for homeowners and renters to structural racism impacting who has access to and trusts COVID 19 vaccines. So what is community power? And why does community power matter to improve health? Learn from recent work to understand and define the diverse ways that communities are organizing to influence health. This will be an interactive conversation where we’ll share recent health research and where we hope you’ll bring your experiences and ideas to learn together!

Trainers:

Aditi Vaidya joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017 as a senior program officer working toward the goal of building community power to support a Culture of Health. With her far-reaching expertise in organizing, environmental health, economic justice, corporate accountability, and worker rights issues, she seeks to employ these skills to help communities promote health equity. She says: “We need to understand power and support communities in seeking it. To remove health barriers and enable people to lead healthier lives, we must support strong, organizing efforts by communities and transform local environments.”

Shelley Abend Zimbalist has directed advocacy and organizing campaigns both locally and statewide and is an activist who has held public office. She has experience in social justice philanthropy and is currently a consultant with the Truth School.