Abstract

Reframing community violence through a social justice conference at a community-based hospital

Anjali Jaiman, Nicolle Siegart, Lisa Kim, Kelsey Sklar, Christine Ibrahim and Julia Sokel, MS
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY

APHA's 2020 VIRTUAL Annual Meeting and Expo (Oct. 24 - 28)

Community-based health centers are at the forefront of addressing health disparities, and yet often lack a social justice framework required for anti-racist healthcare. As a group of medical students from the SUNY Downstate chapter of White Coats for Black lives, we organized the first annual Social Justice in Health Conference with the theme, “Community Violence and Transformative Justice.” Community violence is often viewed by healthcare providers as a cultural problem rather than a social justice issue. Our goals were:

  1. To understand how violence and trauma manifest in Brooklyn communities for people who are black and brown, low income, poor, LGBTQ+, femme, disabled, and/or immigrants
  2. To dissect the structural inequalities that generate community-based violence
  3. To identify ways healthcare is a site of violence and to prioritize healthcare as a site of spiritual, emotional, and physical healing
  4. To challenge mass incarceration and re-imagine justice as community-based and transformative

Our conference intentionally de-centered academic voices and invited activists and community organizers to speak on the intersections of medicine with state and community violence. Our attendees included community members, public defenders, social workers, and healthcare providers. Action-oriented workshops hosted by community-based organizations included activities such as lobbying for policy change and editorial writing. Feedback indicated participants felt more comfortable with their understanding of community violence after the conference and made inter-professional connections.

Our community-centered, action-oriented forum on social justice is an appropriate model to drive medical centers towards radical change and create spaces for community dialogue and accountability.

Advocacy for health and health education Other professions or practice related to public health Public health or related education Public health or related public policy