Public Health Role in the Social Determinants of Health
In its fullest realization, Public Health Liberation looks dissimilar to the current field of public health. As a transdisciplinary field with health equity as its central mission, it does not rely on funding, although funding is desperately needed. It is not academic- or hospital-based. It is neither driven by a “research question” nor adheres to cyclical or linear models of public health intervention. PHL practitioners are skilled in multiple fields, including public health research and advocacy, communication, community relations and leadership, policy analysis, legislative writing, filing legal pro se complaints, legal research and writing, research within real-world constraints, public testimony, political engagement, non-profit development, as well as other skills. They seek to offer these skills and services to communities to help face down threats to community health along the upstream and downstream determinants of health.
An example of Public Health Liberation is the latest issue of Southwest Voice - a community-based, social justice newspaper in Southwest, DC, founded by the Director of Public Health Liberation, Christopher Williams. It discusses the District of Columbia Housing Authority’s failure to deliver on redevelopment plans that would prevent the wholesale displacement of the Greenleaf public housing community. It also includes public statements from Greenleaf resident council leaders. The redevelopment poses to reproduce social and health inequities. Read Issue
Southwest Voice - March 2022
”Greenleaf Resident Council presidents, Dena Walker, Patricia Bishop, and Belinda Belk recently held a call with DC Housing Authority Executive Director Brenda Donald, Board Chair Dionne Bussey-Reeder, DCHA staff, and developer representatives to discuss plans to move forward with redevelopment. Prior to the meeting, DCHA had circulated a packet of information that sent shock waves through the community, prompting a meeting between DCHA and Greenleaf leadership. Director Donald delivered the news that, "The plan on the table does not include Build First." After nearly ten years of cooperating with DCHA and placing their trust in a Build First model to prevent displacement, resident leaders' efforts proved futile. Director Donald acknowledged on the call that Build First was a "requirement" during the request for proposals, but she struggled with explaining how the most recent plans managed to deviated so substantially. She showed not to be in full possession of the facts, claiming falsely that the final development team had site control. There was no written agreement between the supposed site at 4th and I St and the developers.
