Activist Meet & Greet: People of Color.
The Activist Meet & Greet Series provides informal networking events focused on different areas of public health practice.
This event features health organizations and advocates in partnership with communities of color. The work these organizations are doing in community action, program development, and individual empowerment align strongly with the ethos of SPH and the Activist Lab. The goal is to build connections and foster relationships between these organizations and the BUSPH community. Our partners are looking to engage in thoughtful, meaningful discussions with faculty and staff whose research and scholarship align with the needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as MPH, MS, DrPH, and PhD students who are looking for:
- Part-time jobs
- Full-time jobs
- Volunteer opportunities
- Practicum opportunities
- Networking and opportunities to learn more about the organization
All students, faculty, and staff interested in building their network in the BIPOC communities are welcome to attend. Food will be offered to-go. Please follow all BU COVID-19 public health and safety protocols. Masks are required during this event.
Please RSVP using the form below.
Community Partners:
Asian Women for Health
AWFH is a peer-led, community-based network dedicated to advancing Asian women’s health and wellness through education, advocacy, and support. We envision a world where Asian women are well-informed, have access to care that is culturally appropriate and high quality, and inspired to live happy, healthy lives.
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Boston Public Health Commission
The Boston Public Health Commission, the country’s oldest health department, is an independent public agency providing a wide range of health services and programs. It is governed by a seven-member board of health appointed by the Mayor of Boston.
Public service and access to quality health care are the cornerstones of our mission – to protect, preserve, and promote the health and well-being of all Boston residents, particularly those who are most vulnerable. The Commission’s more than 40 programs are grouped into six bureaus: Child, Adolescent & Family Health; Community Health Initiatives; Homeless Services; Infectious Disease; Recovery Services; and Emergency Medical Services.
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Boston University Center for Antiracist Research
The mission of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research is to convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to figure out novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice. We foster exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives. We are working toward building an antiracist society that ensures equity and justice for all.
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Massachusetts Public Health Association
The Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA) is a nonprofit organization that promotes a healthy Massachusetts through advocacy, community organizing, and coalition building. We are leaders in the movement to create health equity by addressing the root causes of health and wellness. We promote policies that impact the major drivers of health outcomes, such as access to healthy food, safe affordable housing, and transportation. We also advocate for equitable public health services throughout the Commonwealth.
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New England Innocence Project
The New England Innocence Project (NEIP) is an independent social justice non-profit that works to correct and prevent wrongful convictions and fights injustice within the criminal legal system for innocent people imprisoned for a crime they did not commit in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Our team provides free forensic testing, investigation, experts, and an experienced legal team to exonerate the innocent and bring them home to their loved ones. We provide exoneree support as they work to rebuild their lives in freedom through the peer-led Exoneree Network. We also use our expertise about wrongful convictions to provide education and advocate for legislative and judicial reforms to prevent future tragedies.
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Saheli
More than two decades years ago, Saheli recognized that domestic violence adversely affected many immigrant families. Saheli’s aim was to become a beacon of hope for women and children affected by this public health crisis. Today Saheli is a non-profit that offers many cultural and language-specific services to South Asian and Arab domestic violence survivors and their children. South Asian and Arab women with diverse religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and varying English language proficiency often find it difficult to find vital culturally sensitive services. Saheli is well aware of barriers for women who want to reach out for help like unique cultural factors, acculturation stress, a limited support structure in the US, and limited English language proficiency.
Saheli is here to offer non-judgmental culturally sensitive domestic and sexual violence services that are vital to the wellbeing of immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence while keeping in mind their unique cultural beliefs and upbringing.
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Raul Fernandez for State Representative
For Raul, politics cannot be business as usual: it’s about delivering on equity, and it’s personal. Raul Fernandez is running for State Representative in the 15th Norfolk District because he knows what Brookline can accomplish when we devote our energy and our resources to equity. His commitment to justice in our public institutions is deeply personal to him because he has seen their impact in his own life. Growing up as a resident of public housing in New York City, he saw that public institutions can create safe and stable neighborhoods, and when his family climbed the ladder into the middle class with good union jobs, he saw the power of organizing as a tool to secure economic justice. As a student at Bronx Science, he saw that a well-resourced public school can unlock the limitless potential in its students, while his zoned public school down the street graduated fewer than 3 in 10 students. He has found community in and around Brookline since he came to Massachusetts to attend BU in 1995, and is thrilled to be raising his family in Brookline with his wife Christina, who is a lifelong resident.
Raul has been leading at the local level, but he hasn’t seen the same urgency from our state government. As a Board Member of the Racial Imbalance Advisory Council at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, he has seen how school segregation and inequitable education funding continue to lock many students of color in Massachusetts out of educational opportunity. When he co-created a working group to support the Brookline Housing Authority and its residents, he saw that state funding for public housing is woefully inadequate, both for maintenance and for programming for residents. When he championed the push to secure voting rights for 16- and 17-year-olds in Brookline, he saw it pass Town Meeting and die amid legislative inaction on Beacon Hill, like thousands of progressive bills and home rule petitions every session. When he went to Beacon Hill to fight for local options for tenant protections alongside Reps. Nika Elugardo and Mike Connolly, he saw just how few State Representatives were in the fight with him.
Raul knows that real progress requires representatives who are deeply committed to these fights. As our next State Representative, he will work every day for our Brookline community and to build justice across the Commonwealth on topics from housing to education to climate to community safety. He knows what it takes to make change, why we need it so urgently, and that it’s past time for us to get to work making it.
