By Solange Gould

After nearly a year of the global pandemic, we are in need of a new vision and narrative for the purpose, power, and strategies of public health.

In 2020, public health became a catchphrase in popular discourse. In news media surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the uprisings against policing and in defense of Black lives, the term was often deployed to spotlight how various systemic crises cause harm and violence. We rightly asserted that “Racism is a public health crisis” and demanded that our decision-makers “Defund the police, invest in health”.

This was an important first step in shifting the narrative. Events of the past year catalyzed a growing recognition that nearly every aspect of our lives intersects with public health— and…

By Lili Farhang

We lead with our humanity and the centrality of our relationships, making space to acknowledge how our bodies and hearts feel. We seek to build a sense of belonging and heal from the traumas of living in systems of advantage and oppression.

— on Centering the Heart, from HIP’s Strategic Plan

A commitment to equity and racial justice requires a capacity and willingness to feel the depth of the work we are doing. We don’t mean this in an intellectual sense, but in an embodied sense. …

By Solange Gould, Sophia Simon-Ortiz, and Shannon Tracey

Let’s use this election to shift ​who​ holds power, ​how​ power is held, and what​ collective power looks like, to advance health equity.

This election, we have the power to transform the terrain upon which the health of our communities depends. To cultivate collective health, we can use the power of our votes to overhaul and transform existing systems of oppression. We’re all feeling the high stakes, heartache, and anxiety of this election. The decades-long attack on our public sector infrastructure has limited our ability to respond to COVID-19, and has left…

With 2020 behind us, and a long road to health equity ahead, HIP staff reflect on a few of the things that moved us and got us through last year.

By Human Impact Partners Staff

Shortly before the New Year, HIP staff gathered together (virtually) to reflect on the year coming to a close, to appreciate one another for the our mutual care, love, and work, and to set our intentions for advancing health equity in the time ahead. As part of that reflection, we each shared some of the things that inspired, moved, and got us through 2020.

This…

By Christine Mitchell, Lien Pham, and Narissa Pham

On August 31st, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom transferred Tien Pham from San Quentin State Prison in California to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at a detention center in Colorado. Tien is a Vietnamese refugee who was charged as an adult at the age of 17, and was recently found suitable for parole after 2 decades of incarceration. But because of direct ICE transfers — a practice where jails and prisons transfer people directly to ICE custody for detention and deportation upon release — he is now separated from his family…

By Christine Mitchell, Martha Ockenfels-Martinez, Jamie Sarfeh, & Sophia Simon-Ortiz

Over the past month, much of the news surrounding service slow downs and impending budget cuts at the United States Postal Service (USPS) has focused on the threats posed to voting in the upcoming November elections. Voter disenfranchisement is a real and urgent concern, as so many will depend on mail-in ballots to safely cast their votes this year amidst the ongoing pandemic. …

By Lili Farhang and Solange Gould

When HIP’s Board of Directors adopted our new 5-year strategic plan on March 13, we had no idea that we were facing a global pandemic, and a renewed nationwide movement to defend Black Lives and reimagine community safety. We had no idea that life and public discourse would change in innumerable ways. It’s been almost 5 months since that day, and we feel confident (and relieved!) that our new plan 100% holds up in this rapidly changing context. …

By Lili Farhang

Across the world, communities have come together to demand justice in response to the ongoing police murders of Black people, and the continued structural violence of systemic anti-Black racism. As we mourn George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and the countless others killed by police, it is our responsibility as public health practitioners to name and confront a glaring and urgent truth: policing, incarceration, and structural racism are endemic public health crises.

Racial justice and racial equity are fundamental to our mission at Human Impact Partners (HIP). Human Impact Partners transforms the field of public health to…