Women speak out for health care and healthy communities: Giving voice to health disparities

Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need (RWV) is a national collaboration working to engage a broad array of reproductive health and justice advocates in local, state and national health reform discussions. A central strategy of RWV is to shine a spotlight on the voices of women who have struggled to get the health care that they and their families need, and to make the connection between these experiences and policy solutions. RWV is conducting a Speak Out initiative that features women telling personal stories and engaging with a panel of policy respondents who can identify themes among the stories and discuss the various policy solutions to the health care problems identified. The speak outs serve to mobilize women in support of comprehensive health care reform efforts; expand policymakers' and health reform advocates' understanding of women's broad concerns about the current health care system; and raise public awareness of women's commitment to improving US health care. Using the tried and true tools of the women's health movement, supplemented by 21st century technology and the multiplier effects it makes possible, RWV is ensuring that women's health care needs will be addressed within the effort to establish quality, affordable health care for all. The Avery Institute for Social Change, one of the founding RWV coordinators, plays a special role in the speak out initiative, giving voice to those who experience the impact health disparities, particularly in communities of color and promoting public policies that will create healthy communities of color.