Last week, CPEHN was one of the many organizations that attended the PolicyLink “Equity Summit 2015: All in for inclusion, justice, and prosperity” in Los Angeles. This three day national gathering convened thousands of advocates, organizers, and elected officials from all over the country to discuss and brainstorm opportunities for policy change with a clear equity focus. Over 60 sessions were offered covering a broad swath of equity-focused topics including: social entrepreneurship, climate change, housing, transportation, incarceration, inclusive governance, employment, and many more.
CPEHN kicked off the Equity Summit by participating in a pre-summit Alliance for Boys and Men of Color Policy Convening where we worked with the Health Policy Workgroup to narrow down the Alliance’s primary focuses for 2016. We have been co-leading the workgroup with PolicyLink and have continued to bring health equity legislation and policy issues to the discussions.
Though the workshops and caucuses provided great opportunities to learn about various equity policy issues and connect with advocates, the opening and closing plenary sessions were particularly impactful. The closing plenary discussed “Building a Multiracial, Multigenerational Equity Movement” with panelists Carmen Perez from Gathering for Justice, DeRay McKesson from We The Protesters, Geoffrey Canada formerly from the Harlem Children’s Zone, Mary Kay Henry from SEIU International, Nick Tilsen from Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, Stewart Kwoh from Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA , and Dr. Robert K. Ross from The California Endowment. Their conversation focused on how the many different issues and movements are all integral to the overall movement for equity and how we as advocates must learn to collectively work together to advance all the issues we care about.
Everyone who attended the Summit received a copy of The Equity Manifesto, which encapsulates some of the thoughts and ideas from the event. In addition, PolicyLink is launching a 12-part “Summit Snapshot” blog series that will feature first-person accounts of sessions, written by Summit attendees. The series begins with “The Future of Equity in Place, Race, and Economy,” with a new post going live every weekday, so stay tuned to the PolicyLink Equity Blog for more.
CPEHN will continue to build and expand our movement for health equity in California and we’re looking forward to advancing that work with long-standing partners and new partners we connected with at the Equity Summit.