Public Health Liberation News
MEDIA CONTACT: info@publichealthliberation.com
Press Releases.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 7, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Forms Work Group to Leverage Artificial Intelligence for Theory-Building
Public Health Liberation (PHL), a 501c3 nonprofit, announces the creation of a member work group to leverage the advantages of artificial intelligence and machine-learning for accelerating the development of Public Health Economy studies.
The Public Health Economy is defined as the interactions and totality of economic, political, and social drivers that impact our communities’ health and well-being. It is concerned with the relationship and interaction among all agents or classes of agents in the operationalization and reproduction of health inequity. This innovative interdisciplinary field, posited by Public Health Liberation, requires theory- and knowledge-gathering that is limited in the current training and practice models.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a type of machine-learning that can overcome limitations of current approaches to literature reviews. Novel constructs such as Public Health Economy can be entered into AI platforms such as ChatGPT and respond to question-based prompts where such terms do not appear in the literature. Rather than rely on accrual of academic discourse over years or decades, AI potentiates an accelerated field of transdisciplinary studies.
PHL seeks to use this advantage for theory-building and synthesis to elucidate and affect the Public Health Economy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 13, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 17, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Hosts Community Health Conference for Resident Leaders in Low-Income Communities
Public Health Liberation (PHL), a 501c3 nonprofit, will host a citywide conference of resident leaders in low-income communities to plan strategies for supporting a neighborhood culture of health. The conference is entitled, “Community Health Ambassadors’ Conference,”. Attendees were recruited among elected resident leaders from public housing and other low-income communities in Washington, DC. The conference is supported by grant funding from Diverse City Funds, which seeks to support community-based organizations in efforts around structural change.
The PHL coalition has been meeting since mid-January to discuss challenges and opportunities in personal and community health. The goal of the conference is to build upon prior discussion to outline a roadmap for internal strengthening and external stakeholder engagement. Coalition members have already defined a wide-range of challenges from health education to deteriorating housing conditions and unmet mental health needs.
Presidents, resident councils, and property-based health ambassadors will convene from 11am-2pm at a local neighborhood library. The event is by invitation only.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 13, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Announces Internship Opportunities for Spring 2023
Public Health Liberation (PHL), a 501c3 nonprofit, announces internship opportunities for spring 2023. PHL deeply appreciates the valuable contributions of our fall 2022 interns. Students can email info@publichealthliberation.com to apply.
The spring 2022 internship opportunity supports Public Health Liberation theory and practice – an innovative approach to tackling community health challenges through critical thinking and community engagement. There are three areas that needed for internship support. All interns are invited to participate in any on-site and virtual community activities. This experience is highly flexible and is not expected to interfere with scholarly work. This internship centers on the learner’s needs. There are low-stakes biweekly conversations among the site director and interns that offer rich and informative dialogue.
Interdisciplinary Research – The intern(s) will be responsible for developing a systematic review of the literature to identify theories beyond public health that can provide insight in the performance of the micro and macro public health economy – a PHL concept that unites economic, political, social, and legal disciplinary thought under a single analytic lens. A stipend may be available depending on how many weekly hours the intern can commit. Interns who opt for this project will apply critical thinking skills beyond their expected educational level.
Health Messaging – The intern(s) will be responsible for developing and implementing health messages for text-, email-, and paper-based campaigns for low-income and public housing communities. Their work will reflect feedback from a citywide community coalition in Washington, DC that seeks to normalize a neighborhood culture of health. A preliminary list of community needs is available here - https://www.southwestvoicedc.com/PHL. Intern will be expected to attend community meeting and propose tools and strategies to reach communities. A stipend may be available depending on how many weekly hours the intern can commit.
Support Citywide Community Health Coalition – The intern(s) will be responsible for support of critical components of a community grant to strengthen community collaboration for structural change. Unlike the two positions above, the intern(s) will need to commit a certain number of hours per week to provide predictability for grant support. This position will 1) attend on-site and virtual community events, as available, 2) assist with scheduling meeting with stakeholders that could help with structural change in community change, and 3) help develop health education materials and campaigns based on expressed community needs. A preliminary list of community needs is available here - https://www.southwestvoicedc.com/PHL. A stipend may be available depending on how many weekly hours the intern can commit. Interns who opt for this project will apply critical thinking skills beyond their expected educational level.
Keywords: health equity, interdisciplinary, public health, community health, health disparities, research
Required skills: Students should be intellectually curious, self-directed, and interested in highly inclusive determinants of health to achieve health equity. Critical thinking skills, writing skills, and organization skills are essential. Although this experience is highly flexible in terms of hours per week, interns are expected to be reliable and have some consistency throughout the experience.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 3, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Celebrates 2022 Successes and Defines 2023 Strategic Agenda
Public Health Liberation (PHL), a 501c3 nonprofit, recently published its aims to accelerate health equity in the Public Health Economy and its successes in 2022 in the December issue of its international health equity newsletter. PHL held the first national public health conference on-site in a public housing community and produced our inaugural manuscript that achieved several firsts - first to define the Public Health Economy, first general theory of public health by a majority of African American women, first public health theory manuscript with multiple residents from public housing community leadership. Our manuscript study guide has helped communities digest the rich discourse that defined new concepts to elucidate public health challenges - Public Health Economy, public health liberation, illiberartion, liberation safe space, public health realism. PHL created a guide for implementing liberation safe spaces and piloted liberation safe spaces in Uganda, Washington, DC, and California.
PHL aims to deepen engagement with communities to define the micro-Public Health Economy, develop a framework for other communities to use to understand health inequity from PH Economic analysis, and create an interdisciplinary compendium on related concepts across various disciplines to gain insight into economic, political, and social drivers of health inequity. We will conduct needs assessment among our communities of practice, expand the number of liberation safe spaces in affected communities, and develop horizontal and vertical tools for each community of practice represented within PHL. We anticipate manuscripts on a follow-up to our inaugural manuscript by more fully defining PHL as a form of public health praxis, a type of research and data-gathering, and community and student training. This will include preliminary measures for the Public Health Economy.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 14, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Receives First Grant for Applied Liberation Theory and Practice
Public Health Liberation (PHL), a 501c3 nonprofit, received its first grant from Diversity City Fund to support the application of Public Health Liberation theory and practice, to include evaluation and intervention in the Public Health Economy. "We are immensely grateful to Diversity City Fund for their support of our mission. This grant will support the DC Chapter of PHL in lasting ways for the Greenleaf and Lincoln Road public housing communities,” Christopher Williams, Public Health Liberation Founder and President.
Diversity City Fund supports the visions of people in Washington, DC to realize liberation, build power, spark solutions and create social change. The grant will support knowledge-sharing and capacity-building among public housing communities and their elected representatives. Coalition partners include Greenleaf Midrise Family Resident Council, Greenleaf Gardens Resident Council, Lincoln Road Resident Council, Friends of Park Morton, Southwest Voice, Southwest Black Families Equity Coalition, and Public Health Liberation.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 14, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Publishes Transformative Theory to Accelerate Health Equity
Public Health Liberation (PHL), a 501c3 nonprofit, recently published its eponymous theory aimed at transforming public health to accelerate health equity. Headquartered in Washington, DC, PHL was established in November 2021 as a voice for communities burden by vast health inequity. Their manuscript draws attention to the chronic state of health disparities, especially by income and race, which warrants a seismic shift in public health support and intervention. Their sweeping 21-page framework may represent the most consequential pivot in public health discourse in the last 20 years. Based on their innovative concept of the Public Health Economy, Public Health Liberation™ posits a radical reconceptualization of public health using a unified framework wherein our primary aim of eliminating health disparities is supported through alignment of our worldviews that draw from a wide-ranging body of literature, including African American philosophical traditions. Envisioned as a single analytic lens and basis for intervention, the Public Health Economy™ theory explains opposing tensions and competing health priorities at any level of analysis and proposes a framework for attenuating the reproduction of health inequity.
Public Health Liberation promotes a unique work that is internally consistent across all aspects of public health. Values, theory, practice, research, and training are interrelated and co-dependent. We propose theories of cause-and-effect to elucidate internal contradictions within the public health economy, while leveraging liberation for research and practice within real-world constraints. Ours is an authentic account of health inequity reproduction because we are socially embedded within communities, particularly low-income and communities of color, that bear the brunt of deep health injustice.
The manuscript is available at "Public Health Liberation – An Emerging Transdiscipline to Elucidate and Affect the Public Health Economy" by Christopher Williams MPH, Joy Birungi MSc et al. (rochesterregional.org)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 4, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Releases July 4th Essay on James Madison and Public Health
Public Health Liberation (PHL) released an Independence Day essay to discuss the relevance of James Madison’s Federalist No. 10 to public health. Founded in Southwest, Washington, DC in 2021, PHL is a national non-profit with growing influence in public health discourse and practice. This essay applies Madisonian theory on civil factionalism to explain the internal contradictions and poor performance of the public health economy. Deep and chronic health disparities, especially by class and race, are explained by this grand theory. “In the face of unacceptable differences in health outcomes, public health needs innovative approaches that is described in this essay,” said Founding Director Christopher Williams and essay author.
The essay describes Madison’s belief that interest groups or factions can be corrosive to democratic governments and warrant special consideration to safeguard public interest. It extrapolates this view to argue that the public health economy is no less threatened by these groups. Together, the actions of actors or a class of actors within this economy constitute anarchy. The author concludes that addressing disorder requires improved internal consistency to align theory, practice, and research while cultivating liberation expression in affected populations.
The petition is available at https://www.publichealthliberation.com/hub/federalist-papers-no-10-and-public-health-liberation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 27, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Releases Petition to Accelerate Health Equity
Public Health Liberation (PHL) recently announced the release of a public petition calling for local, state, and national efforts to accelerate health equity. The petition has garnered dozens of signatures within hours of its publication on several national distribution lists including “Social Medicine” and the “Spirit of 1848.” In addition to its national newsletter, Public Health Liberation will increase the visibility of its petition with the eventual goal of disseminating to national and state organizations. “We cannot accept the chronic and persistent health disparities, especially in race, any longer. This petition is saying that we will no longer stand by as idle spectators.,” said Founding Director Christopher Williams. The public is encouraged to sign and re-circulate the petition.
The petition is available at https://www.publichealthliberation.com/petition.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 16, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com
Public Health Liberation Board Welcomes Housing Policy and Financing Expert Darrell Davis
Public Health Liberation (PHL) recently announced in its January newsletter that Darrell Davis, a national housing policy and financing expert, has joined the PHL Board. Public Health Liberation is a new non-profit based in Washington, DC that seeks to fundamentally reshape the meaning and practice of preventative public health.
The announcement read, “It is with great pleasure that the Public Health Liberation Board announces that Darrell Davis, a housing financing and policy expert, has joined the Board. Mr. Davis is a real estate development professional with over twenty years experience in the industry. His practice-based knowledge and keen systems-thinking is a major addition to the Board's goal of identifying pathways of addressing the social determinants of health through housing policy. He is highly skilled in financial and market analysis with expertise in underwriting, planning and project management. Mr. Davis has spent his professional career advocating for housing justice for vulnerable and housing insecure populations in several states including Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, and the District of Columbia. He currently serves as the Director of Community Revitalization and Housing Affordability for Charleston County Government in South Carolina. The Board is elated that Mr. Davis has joined our Board.”
“Mr. Davis is a powerhouse in the affordable housing development community. He’s deeply respected not just for his expertise, but his integrity and deep moral commitment to what is fair and right. I wasn’t entirely sure that he would accept when I asked to meet with him. He was excited about the opportunity. We are over the moon that he saw Public Health Liberation as a good fit for public service," said PHL Founding Director Christopher Williams.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 2, 2021
MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Communications
info@publichealthliberation.com | Download pdf
Public Health Liberation Movement Launches with National Webinar of Community and Academic Stakeholders
Public Health Liberation (PHL) held its virtual “National Webinar and Conversation on Systems Thinking and the Social Determinants of Health: A Radical Public Health Paradigm Shift to Accelerate Social Change” on November 5, 2021. More than 700 registrants represented over 570 organizations including the CDC, NIH, Joint Commission, dozens of academic institutions, state health departments, and community organizations. Nine co-hosts discussed applied public health liberation philosophy across legal, political, community, historical, and academic systems. The Southwest-Waterfront neighborhood of Washington, DC was used as a case study. The webinar recording is available at publichealthliberation.com.
Christopher Williams, MPH, served as the National Convenor and co-moderator. He is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland at College Park, School of Public Health. He discussed preliminary principles of Public Health Liberation, which the PHL Board and a national work group will finalize in a forthcoming manuscript in summer 2022. Dr. Jehan (“Gigi”) El-Bayoumi co-hosted and facilitated panel discussions. Dr. El-Bayoumi is a professor of medicine and founded the Rodham Institute, which applies the transformative power of education to achieve health equity in Washington, D.C.
The webinar featured two panels. The first panel on environmental health and advocacy included Rhonda Hamilton, Alisha Camacho, and Kari Fulton. Together with community stakeholders, they have engaged in a years-long struggle against environmental racism through political engagement, regulatory appeal, use of digital arts for storytelling, and coalition-building. They explained the industrial pollution sources affecting a vulnerable public housing community in Buzzard Point, Southwest, Washington DC and how political and economic players continued adding to these health threats during a current period of rapid urban redevelopment. “The environmental injustices that we've been experiencing have deteriorated the health of residents. One of the things that we're dealing with is toxicants from the soil air quality issues because we're near two major league stadiums, not to mention the enormous amount of traffic that we're dealing with from this from the new Frederick Douglass Bridge and the taking down of the old bridge. In addition, we have lead pipes. We live in housing that has lead and so all of those factors come together. We've seen a lot of cumulative impacts,” said Ms. Hamilton, an elected official, environmental health researcher, and community leader.
Blackfeet tribal leader Lauren Monroe, Jr. joined public housing community leaders - Patricia Bishop and Linda Brown - in a rich discussion during a second panel. Panelists discussed the behavior of systems that perpetuate health inequity such as housing and health care agency dysfunction, sub-populations within vulnerable communities, collective trauma, and forms of active resistance.
“"The unfortunate thing is we often run into the bureaucracy of it of the health care system and the the people that need it the most often aren't the ones that get the health care the mental health services,” said Mr. Monroe. Mrs. Bishop summarized, “I would you all to join some of the meetings that housing at the Board of Commissioners have and the developers have. Just get to know and understand and see for yourself - why this fight is so hard because they have been under investigation with money being missing millions of dollars. Those millions of dollars could have started on making sure that we lived in a proper environment than to waste all these years - steal and change a director to another director to another director and still we're living underneath these same conditions”.
“During COVID it was very hard to manage because my daughter did get COVID, so it brought a lot of information to the forefront about health systems and what we value and the people. The humanity of who we are was on display - how we treated those who were not considered a priority. With the disabled population,…it was a reminder to me as a mother to continue advocating for her and those who don't have that voice,” said Mrs. Brown.
Following the webinar, Public Health Liberation was incorporated as a non-profit in Washington, DC and is forming a national board of directors.
Resources.
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The HUB
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Health Equity and Liberation Terms
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Webinar Recording
Thank you for registering for the November 5 webinar, "Systems Thinking, Liberation Philosophy, and the Social Determinants of Health". We had over 600 organizations represented. With the help of our inspiring co-hosts, we officially launched the Public Health Liberation Movement. You can access a recording of the discussion here.
“Anti-racism without liberation philosophy is an incomplete narrative.”
“We welcome friendships, but if we're going to address these things, it comes from our own communities because we know what's wrong. We don't want a white savior."
— Blackfeet tribal leader Lauren Monroe, Jr., speaking at the Public Health Liberation national conversation and webinar in November 2021