RWJF

We all want to live in a country that values and recognizes the dreams we have for our families. But for too long, our nation has placed value on some lives more than others based on race, class, gender, and disability, among other factors. While the Supreme Court’s decisions last year in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College has made the work of building inclusive college campuses much harder, it's imperative universities receive the resources and support to continue their critical mission. We must recruit, retain, and promote diverse faculty, staff, and students to create a healthcare workforce that reflects the rich tapestry of our society. MORE>>> https://rwjf.ws/4b936Jr We must defend and advance race-conscious policymaking that addresses the history of racial and other forms of discrimination. MORE >>> https://rwjf.ws/4eJDvdt RWJF will not waver in our commitment to stay the course on equity to ensure everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. MORE>>> https://rwjf.ws/48WuL0e #Diversity #Equity #DEI #HigherEducation #Healthcare

Housing is a key social determinant of health. Homeownership provides more than just a place to live. It creates financial security and is a primary path to building intergenerational wealth. Organizations like the Housing Partnership Network (HPN) help finance housing-focused community development financial institutions (CDFIs), equipping them with the resources they need to provide mortgages to people with low incomes, who, often, are excluded from traditional financing. But despite their demonstrated success, these groups remain underfunded. We’ve invested $15M in HPN in a unique pass-through structure for funding to reach four CDFIs working closely with community members to provide them with low-cost, long-term mortgages. CHN Housing Partners is one of these recipients. For Claudette Williams, a CHN borrower, “owning a home is about an investment and having something that’s your own.” There are several barriers that income-strained communities experience when trying to buy a home. Learn more about this investment and how mortgage lending can help these communities access capital and thrive: https://rwjf.ws/3IFG6Gr

The end of June saw the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, as well as a another set of alarming SCOTUS rulings that stand to undermine our civil rights. This is a call to action for philanthropy—RWJF included—to recommit to bolder action in support of equity and justice, including reproductive justice.  For too long, stigma and politics surrounding abortion and structural racism have derailed efforts to advance reproductive justice as a condition for fully securing health as a fundamental right. The consequences are already playing out in states where harsh abortion restrictions coincide with a nearly 40% increase in maternal mortality rates, a crisis that disproportionately affects Black and disabled birthing people, among other marginalized groups.   Philanthropy has been part of this collective problem. For example, it was only in 2021—as the Supreme Court was hearing arguments in two cases challenging state abortion bans—that we at RWJF officially weighed in on abortion and reproductive health. While our birth justice grantmaking preceded our 2021 statement, it was not until later that we began funding broader reproductive rights (to include abortion) and reproductive justice.   I was inspired by my conversation last month with Indra Lusero, Tenesha Duncan, Tamila Gresham and Halie Eshe Cole in discussion at the Funders for Birth Justice & Equity Summit where we reflected on how we can continue to create lasting change, including: - Prioritizing support for organizations led by and for those most affected: Despite facing acute risks, these organizations are developing solutions and coalitions to address intersecting forms of oppression and advance reproductive justice. Read about some approaches here: o    https://lnkd.in/eJd8cv9F; o    https://lnkd.in/e_9gzTTa - Engaging in philanthropic repair to address our harmful role in the reproductive justice ecosystem: This includes rebalancing our focus on imagined or potential legal threats to our well-resourced institutions, toward the real, acute risks faced by grantees daily. At RWJF we are continuing our equity transformation process to ensure our culture and practices align more deeply with our mission. This includes learning from our own missteps, and shifting historical practices by offering flexible funding for multi-issue grassroots efforts and technical and legal assistance to grantees to protect and advance their race-conscious initiatives. The list doesn’t end here. These and other steps are key to shoring up our efforts to ensure that health is no longer a privilege but a right.

Happy Disability Pride Month!   Poet and scholar Audre Lorde once said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”   In the spring, Borealis Philanthropy launched the Black Disabled Liberation Project, seeded by a $1 million dollar investment from RWJF. The project is a collaboration of Borealis’ Black Led Movement Fund and Disability Inclusion Fund to resource organizing that happens at the intersection of disability and Blackness.   One in 4 Black adults have a disability, and with our explicit but not exclusive focus on dismantling racism, we understand that racism intensifies all other barriers that Black disabled people in America face.  As part of this fund, and under the guidance of disability justice leaders Yomi Wrong and India Harville, 10 grantee partners were selected to receive two-year grants of $100,000 each.   It's an honor to follow the lead of these groups, guided by disability justice principles, as they reimagine systems that reinforce anti-Blackness, systemic racism and ableism. 

Building more diverse, inclusive college campuses has become significantly more challenging in recent years. As academic institutions grapple with the question of what to do with their diversity programs, there are strategies that can help recruit, retain, and promote diverse faculty, staff, and students. Join us for a live conversation that will equip leaders with the tools to implement effective recruitment, retention, and promotion practices for underrepresented scholars.

Join us on July 17 for a discussion about the critical role of a health equity leader. Leaders in advocacy and healthcare will discuss how to effectively support and empower equity leaders as they work to advance anti-racist health systems at their organizations and in the community. After the conversation, meet at The Intersection, a place for everyone working to build anti-racist health systems to share insights, talk about what’s working, and offer suggestions on tackling challenges. All are welcome: consumer and justice advocates, healthcare providers, public health experts, and you.

The Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action last year added momentum to a disturbing pattern of backlash to social progress that is as old as America itself. But instead of giving up or believing change is impossible, we have to stay the course. At RWJF, we continue to support organizations that are working on important solutions to foster equity, because lifting barriers to opportunity for those who have been blocked from it improves everyone’s health and wellbeing. We are proud to stand alongside our peer philanthropies, like Fearless Fund, committed to doing the same. Our North Star is a future where health is not a privilege, but a right. As risky as it may feel to name equity, diversity and inclusion as essential to achieving our vision, that is nothing compared to the mounting risks our partners and grantees face. We can only take bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime if every sector stays committed to equity. For too long, policies, laws and practices have blocked so many people in America from fair opportunities to live their healthiest lives possible. This was true during the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, when our country amended our Constitution to end slavery and offered overdue freedom to enslaved Black people. However, newly freed Black people could not embrace this nation’s stated ideals of equity because they were blocked by decades of domestic racial terrorism in the form of lynchings, cross burnings, the convict leasing system and many other forms of abuse. After World War II, during which more than 1 million Black soldiers defended our democracy while serving in segregated units, the daily, interpersonal racism they experienced in the military continued when they returned home. Black veterans were blocked from two major pathways to generational wealth – education and homeownership – by racist withholding of G.I. Bill benefits and anti-Black residential covenants across the country. RWJF remains steadfast in our mission to create a more equitable future through working together with our grantees and partners. We are not going back on our commitment to equity in this country. We will not back down. https://rwjf.ws/3XrMwl2

There’s still much work to do to achieve reproductive justice. We must ensure that women and people who give birth across the country—particularly those who face the greatest barriers, including people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQI+ community—have access to a full range of reproductive healthcare services and the ability to raise families in safe, sustainable communities. Our latest series of research briefs highlights evidence-based policy solutions that can help advance reproductive justice, including: - Medicaid expansion - Access to paid family and medical leave - Access to nutrition programs and other economic supports.

The second anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade is an important moment to lift up key shared values between those advocating for disability justice and reproductive justice: bodily autonomy and self-determination. In 2022 alone, 41 states introduced more than 500 abortion restrictions. For disabled individuals, who already encounter ableism, stigma, inaccessible facilities and much more, the Dobbs decision has only created more barriers to healthcare that should not be a privilege, but a right.   As RWJF grantee Maria Town, President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities notes in this important piece, working as part of a broad, bipartisan coalition has often led leaders to be silent on abortion as part of reproductive care. Like AAPD, RWJF issued its first statement about abortion in the wake of the Dobbs decision, recognizing the ruling as a significant additional barrier to safe and accessible reproductive care.     Everyone deserves the right to decide whether they will become pregnant or when, regardless of disability, race, how much money they make or where they live. I’m grateful to leaders in the disability and reproductive justice movements for their efforts to collaborate across difference to make that vision a reality.

This week marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade, and since then nearly half the country has banned or limited access to abortion. As my brilliant colleague, Monique Shaw, PhD, MPH, CHES shared in an interview with NPR affiliate WMNF 88.5 FM,"There is no coincidence that the states with the highest black maternal death rates are also states with the harshest abortion restrictions." Limiting access to abortion negatively impacts health outcomes for both parents and babies, deepening this nation’s maternal health crisis. It also contributes to health inequities, with people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQI+ community—particularly those with lower incomes—facing the greatest barriers to abortion care access. On the other hand, women who have the option of abortion care have better physical health, financial security, and the ability to care for their children compared to women who are denied an abortion.  The path to reproductive justice has been and continues to be paved by the communities most acutely affected. Amid numerous challenges to reproductive rights, organizations like SisterSong, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Inc. (BMMA) and National Network of Abortion Funds are fighting to advance reproductive justice by ensuring the voices of women and people most affected are heard and prioritized, addressing intersecting forms of oppression, transforming systems, and building solidarity across movements. RWJF is staying the course in our commitment to dismantling structural racism as a barrier to health. Ensuring reproductive justice and bodily autonomy are no longer a privilege but a right is critical to this broader goal. https://lnkd.in/gNByy937 #healthequity #reproductivejustice