Press Release: HEALTH ACTIVISTS SHARE STRATEGIES AGAINST YOUTH VIOLENCE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 29, 2008
Contact: Betty Anne Williams
Director of Communications
(202) 789-3505
HEALTH ACTIVISTS SHARE STRATEGIES AGAINST YOUTH VIOLENCE AT JOINT CENTER’S PLACE MATTERS CONFERENCE
NEW ORLEANS -- More than 70 health professionals and community health advocates will meet Tuesday, March 4, for an educational forum on youth violence and the lessons that can be learned from other communities in an effort to address this issue in post-Katrina New Orleans.
The meeting is being sponsored as a part of PLACE MATTERS, a national initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Health Policy Institute. The Joint Center is a Washington-based think tank that focuses primarily on issues of concern to African Americans and other people of color. There are 16 PLACE MATTERS teams located throughout the United States. The New Orleans team is hosting this meeting at the J.W. Marriott-New Orleans in an effort to bring to the area community- and politically- based strategies for curbing youth violence.
To lead the discussion, the group will hear from a panel of New Orleans officials, including Dr. Mosanda Mvula, chief of health disparities. “We want to focus on violence, but violence has an impact on health, an impact on economic development, an impact on education and impacts on every single area of community life in a city,” he said. “It also has an impact on people’s ability to return to the city. Violence has been identified by community leaders as a major impediment to economic development and to a recovery of the whole.”
Also expected on the panel are Kevin Stephens, director of the New Orleans Department of Health and Sandra Robinson, deputy director. In addition Mike Centineo, director of safety and permits; City Council member Cynthia Willard-Lewis; Yolanda Rodriguez, New Orleans’ executive director of planning; and Jessie Smallwood, deputy director in the Office of Recovery Management are expected to participate.
Youth violence is considered a major public health issue, and the problem afflicts many PLACE MATTERS communities. According to a 2003 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, more than 1.5 million people in the U.S. were victims of violence perpetrated by youths between the ages of 12 and 20.
The National PLACE MATTERS initiative provides a learning environment where teams made up of heath professionals, community and political activists, and others come together with national experts to exchange information about the social causes of health status and eliminating health disparities in America.
PLACE MATTERS’ approach to reducing and eliminating health disparities involves identifying the complex underlying causes and defining strategies to address root causes. Social science research has shown that patterns of health, illness, and health disparities can be modified if the social conditions that lead to poor health are changed.
“By addressing upstream factors that produce poor health outcomes, PLACE MATTERS leverages an approach that differs from the usual disease reaction model. This initiative provides a critically important learning opportunity for participating jurisdictions and for the nation, as teams of dedicated participants develop, test and share new strategies to address the social determinants of health,” says Gina Wood, deputy director of the Joint Center’s Health Policy Institute.
“We need new approaches if we are to unravel the complex problems that contribute to the health care crisis in the African American community,” said Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center. The summit is sponsored by PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing social and economic equity.
The PLACE MATTERS initiative is supported by a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Many from the PLACE MATTERS meeting also will attend the Regional Equity Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice and Smart Growth, which is expected to bring more than 1,000 participants to New Orleans March 5-7.
About the National PLACE MATTERS Initiative:
Place Matters is a national initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Health Policy Institute designed to improve the health of participating communities by addressing social conditions that lead to poor health. As of July 2007, our national learning community consists of 16 Place Matters Teams responsible for designing and implementing strategies that address the social determinants of health impacting residents in 22 counties and 2 cities. HPI provides technical assistance to participating Teams in the forms of facilitation, Design Lab meetings that include national level experts and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, technical assistance grants, and access to data.
Participating Counties and Cities:
Alameda County, CA
Baltimore, MD
Bernalillo County, NM
Cook County, IL
Coahoma, Washington, & Sunflower Counties, MS
Cuyahoga County, OH
Jefferson County, AL
King County, WA
Marlboro County, SC
Orleans Parish, LA
Prince George’s County, MD
San Joaquin Valley Counties: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Merced, Madera, & Tulare, CA
Sharkey-Issaquena Counties, MS
Suffolk County, MA
Wayne County, MI
Washington, DC
About Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is one of the nation’s premier research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses exclusively on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color. For over three decades, our research and information programs have informed and influenced public opinion and national policy to benefit not only African Americans, but also every American.
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Keep up with events at the Joint Center by viewing Joint Center Journal, the organization’s blog, at www.jointcenter.org
