Initiatives

Equity In Action

2024 Webinar Series

About

In 2025, the Children’s HealthWatch Equity Series proudly celebrates its fifth anniversary, marking a significant milestone in our work to foster equity. Since its inception, the series has evolved alongside the changing landscape of social justice, with 2020 (a pivotal year that sparked global movements for social change) serving as a catalyst for transformative dialogue and action. In the wake of heightened awareness around systemic inequalities, many began to prioritize DEIB efforts, implementing strategies aimed at fostering inclusive environments. However, in recent years, various legislative and societal pressures have sought to undermine DEIB programs, equity measures and initiatives: framing them as contentious rather than vital to progress, indicating a troubling backlash against these initiatives, and with some stakeholders questioning their validity and impact.

Thus, this anniversary series will reflect on the profound changes in equity initiatives, highlighting the strides made in promoting inclusivity while acknowledging the increasing backlash these efforts face today. Our fifth Equity Series aims to empower participants to confront this hostility with resilience and creativity.

Take a look at our past Equity Series below, and make sure to sign up for our newsletter to be notified of future Equity Series 2025 events.

2024 Webinar Series:

Equity in Action

In 2024 we focused on “Equity in Action,” which aimed to shed light on crucial policies impacting child and family health in 2024 and to empower individuals by providing actionable insights on how they can champion equity within their communities and beyond.

In our rapidly evolving world, ensuring the well-being of our youngest members and their families is paramount. From access to quality healthcare and education to addressing social determinants of health, such as poverty and discrimination, the series will delve into a wide array of topics that are central to promoting health equity for all.

Through thought-provoking discussions and expert interviews, and, of course, research, “Equity in Action” will offer a comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities in the realm of child and family health. By highlighting innovative policies and grassroots initiatives that are making a positive impact—and those that aren’t–the series will inspire viewers to take concrete steps towards fostering a more equitable society.

Moreover, viewers will be encouraged to actively engage with their communities, whether through volunteering, advocating for policy changes, or supporting local organizations working towards health equity. By fostering a sense of collective responsibility and empowerment, “Equity in Action” seeks to spark a movement towards a healthier, more equitable future for all. Join us on this transformative journey as we work together to nurture our future generations and build a more just and inclusive world.

The second webinar of the fifth annual Children’s HealthWatch Equity Series, Equity in Action, took a deep dive into different policies and topics of import during 2024 while providing ways people can take action to promote equity in their communities.  The Empowering Futures: GI and Health Equity for Children and Families webinar focused on guaranteed income and its profound impact on health equity for low-income children, families, people of color, and immigrants. Panelists examined the transformative potential of guaranteed income in addressing social determinants of health and advancing health equity for vulnerable populations.

To kick things off, our first webinar, “The Equity Considerations of Food is Medicine as a Healthcare Approach to Food Insecurity,” examined the concept of Food is Medicine and its potential to promote health equity. While medical professionals agree diet, food, and nutrition play a major role in disease prevention and management, the limitations of “food is medicine” interventions as an upstream solution to transform social conditions and improve population health are not clear. Thus, this webinar gathered a roundtable of experts to discuss the advantages of Food is Medicine as a preventative health measure and explore alternative and complementary approaches to improve population health and health equity at the policy and systems level.

Moderated by Rich Sheward, Director of System Implementation Strategies at Children’s HealthWatch, we promise a lively discussion with distinguished guest speakers: Diana Cutts, MD, Co-Lead Principal Investigator and Minneapolis Site Principal Investigator at Children’s HealthWatch, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at University of Minnesota Medical School, and Chief of Pediatrics at Hennepin County Medical Center; Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, author, general internist, primary care doctor, health researcher and Associate Professor of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, Food as Medicine Program Director at Elevance Health.

If you enjoy this kind of content, check back here or sign up for our newsletter for details of other upcoming webinars!

2023 Podcast Series:

Pathways to Equity

Since 1998, Children’s HealthWatch has worked to promote equity through our research and advocacy. As we embark on our 25th year bringing evidence from the frontlines of healthcare to inform policies, we see our anniversary as something more than a milestone. We see this as an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to achieving health equity for young children and their families by advancing research to transform policy. we invite you to join us on this journey!

Our data from more than 80,000 caregivers of children age 4, many of whom live in marginalized communities struggling to afford basic needs, centers on calling out inequities in the many systems that hinder children and families’ ability to thrive. As we mark 25 years bringing research from the frontlines of healthcare to decision-makers, we invite you to join us and reflect, learn how, why, and where inequities happen, and how we catalyze research to create equitable public policies and practices to alleviate them. Join us as we continue to respond and redress inequities facing families and children so that all children and their families have equal opportunities for health and success, now and in the future.

Part III: Respond

Responding with Action for Equity

The views expressed in this podcast are solely that of the speakers and do not represent the views of Children’s HealthWatch.

Part II: Research

Advancing Research to Transform Policy

Part I: Reflect

25 Years: How It Started, How It’s Going

Our equity series this year, Pathways to Equity: Reflect, Research, Respond, will take the form of a 3-part podcast series, and we will identify ways to engender and support equity for young children and their families.

We hope this series will empower you – whether you’re a policymaker, advocate, researcher, parent, or someone who just cares deeply about children – to champion equity in all its forms, and advance Children’s HealthWatch research as a tool to transform policy and improve the health and development of children – our collective future.

We are proud to share with you here part I of our podcast 25 Years: How It Started, How It’s Going with Children’s HealthWatch Executive Director, Dr. Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba; Founder, Dr. Deborah A. Frank; co-lead Principal Investigator and Boston Site Principal Investigator, Dr. Megan Sandel; co-lead Principal Investigator and Minneapolis Site Principal Investigator, Dr. Diana Cutts; and Engagement, Equity & Inclusion Associate, Cerlyn Cantave, as we discuss the origins of Children’s HealthWatch’s work and what drives our mission.

2022 Town Hall Series:

Equity & You

As part of Children’s HealthWatch’s continued commitment to this work, our 2022 equity series, “Equity & You”, will examine how each of us personally can advance equity for children and families right where we are.

Watch our 2 min highlight video to learn more!

Check out the Recording of our Kick-Off Webinar!

April 27th, 2022

Featured Speakers:

Children’s HealthWatch Policy Team
Tanya Nixon Silberg, Founder of Wee the People & Little Uprisings
Linda Edge, One Family Advocacy Team Member

Join us and empower yourself to intentionally and meaningfully change the status quo, improving the lives of millions of children and families across the U.S.

For the past two years, our Equity Series have examined inequities experienced by families of color and immigrant families with young children and called for policy solutions.

Now, our 2022 “Equity & You” series will explore how each of us can personally be an agent for change right where we are.

We invite you to come and learn about “emergent strategy”, how it can be implemented, and what concrete steps you can take to uplift and support equity in your community so that all children and families may have what they need to live healthy, successful lives.

Conceived by author, activist, social justice facilitator, healer, and doula, adrienne maree brown, emergence is “…the way complex systems (such as racism) and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.”

From this perspective, deep systems change starts with shaping the smallest patterns of our daily lives. We can, in brown’s words, “…intentionally change how we live in ways that grow our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for…” by examining how the smallest and simplest of actions and practices can effect change.

2021 Town Hall Series:

Equity Can’t Wait

Children in the first three years of life are in the most rapid brain and body growth period, setting the trajectory for the rest of their lives.

As part of Children’s HealthWatch’s continued commitment to advancing equity, our 2021 “Equity Can’t Wait” series last year shed light on how racism and inequities erode the promise that is this country’s children, and how public policies must, and can be changed, so that all children may thrive and have a real chance for healthy, fulfilled lives.

Check out the recordings below!

Sharing the Wealth, Getting To Health: How Cash Improves the Health of Children and Families

Ending the Tax Penalty Against Immigrant Families

A Place to Call Home: How Equitable Housing Improves Child and Family Health

A Bulwark Against the Storm: The Unequal Impact of COVID Relief Policies on Families with Young Children

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2020 Town Hall Series:

What Equity Looks Like

In 2020, we embarked on a “What Equity Looks Like” series of virtual town halls in advance of our annual fall event in November. As part of that, we have held webinars/town halls focusing on different hardships and their roots in racism and inequity with a particular focus on how COVID-19 has exacerbated them. Check out the recordings below!

Immigration and Equity Webinar with Jackie Vimo from the National Low Income Housing Coalition

The Second Wave: The Racially Inequitable Housing Crisis