Breast cancer town hall meetings: Community collaborations for social justice

This presentation uses ethnographic field notes, interview transcriptions, focus group data, audio-visual records, minutes and reports of meetings, and firsthand accounts to depict the work of the Breast Cancer Town Hall Collaborative, a network of service providers, community organizations and residents concerned about the high rates of breast cancer incidence and mortality in San Francisco. Lead staff for the Collaborative were provided by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. To address limitations in existing programs of breast cancer education and outreach for low income, racial/ethnic minority, and older women, the Collaborative proposed the idea of “community-driven” meetings. Participatory planning processes were used to organize each meeting, and to select neighborhood locations that were accessible and perceived as inclusive of a wide range of participants. In addition to providing an overview of the ten Town Hall Meetings organized by the Collaborative, the presentation addresses the involvement of one community organization, the Bayview Hunters Point Advocates, in efforts to democratize access to needed information about breast cancer, recognize the work of local leaders, and consider racism and inequality as part of the “health risks” faced by low income neighborhoods. Specific examples will be drawn from the first meeting held in Bayview Hunters Point (1998) and the last meeting held in the Outer Mission (2004). Of particular interest here is the progression over time from providing basic information about breast cancer to the inclusion of environmental injustice as a risk factor.