Thank You from the Children’s HealthWatch Team 

We wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of you who made the Children’s HealthWatch event – “Home Is Where Health Is” – a success.

Diane Yentel:  We are so grateful you could join us to accept this year’s Children’s HealthWatch Champion award. Your tireless efforts to ensure that everyone, particularly those with the lowest incomes, can have safe, healthy, stable and affordable housing are exemplary, admirable and necessary. For all that you do to bring attention to the health crisis that is housing instability, and for being an exceptional partner, we thank you.

Anthony Roberts and his son, Junior: Sharing your story of how the Housing Prescriptions as Healthcare program quite literally changed your lives not only touched and moved us, but inspires us to do more to bring holistic support and assistance to those who do not have a stable home. We are humbled by and grateful for your participation.

Representative Marjorie Decker: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us and to highlight the importance of stable housing and income supports like EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) and their positive impact on the health and well-being of our communities. Your partnership and commitment to evidence, and passion become policy that improves the lives for families all across Massachusetts.

Kate Walsh:  We feel privileged to call Boston Medical Center our home. Your motivation and passion for ensuring that every person who crosses the threshold of BMC receives exceptional care without exception is evident in everything you do. Thank you for making the time to be with us as together we work to ensure that all children and families have what they need to thrive.

The Development, Government Affairs and Communications departments at Boston Medical Center, and the Boston University Facilities and AV departments:  Thank you for your guidance and assistance in making our event happen!

The Children’s HealthWatch Advisory Board: We are so filled with gratitude for your wisdom and generosity. From raising funds to providing guidance, you continue to be steadfast supporters of our mission to improve the lives and health of children by informing policies that address and alleviate economic hardships .

To our individual event sponsors and donors: Thank you so much for your generosity! Your kindness is immeasurable and invaluable. Some of you are longtime supporters, and others are new to us, and we are grateful to all.

To our volunteers and others who helped us put this event together, our sincere and deep thanks for your assistance, especially after a long day of work.

And, of course, to all our attendees:  You could have been anywhere else that night, but you decided to spend it with us, and we are so happy that you did. We hope that you enjoyed your time at the celebration and went away with a better understanding of Children’s HealthWatch, what housing stability means for families and what we can do to change the status quo. Please visit our website at www.childrenshealthwatch.org and get in touch if you would like to continue the conversation! And if you are able, you can donate to us here.

Thank you again for a great evening!

Sincerely,

The Children’s HealthWatch Team

P.S. Check out pics from the event below!

Enjoy photos from the “Home Is Where Health Is Event” on

Thursday, October 10, 2019!

Photographs by James Blanken of James Blanken Photography

Donate/Sponsor

Click here for A Special Message from Diane Yentel

To donate or sponsor electronically, please click here.

2019 CHW Fall Sponsorship Levels

To donate or sponsor by check, please make checks payable to Children’s HealthWatch and send to:

Boston Medical Center
Children’s HealthWatch
Joe Eugenio
One Boston Medical Center Place
Vose Hall, 4th floor, Room 421
Boston, MA 02118

To make an in-kind donation, i.e. flowers, food, etc., please contact Cerlyn Cantave at cerlyn.cantave@bmc.org or 617-414-5019.

Meet Diane Yentel, the 2019 Children’s HealthWatch

Champion Award Recipient!

Diane Yentel is the recipient of 2019 Children’s HealthWatch Champion Award, and the President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a membership organization dedicated solely to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes. She is a veteran affordable housing policy expert with nearly two decades of work on affordable housing and community development. Before rejoining NLIHC (where she previously worked as a policy analyst), Diane was Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led federal, state and local policy, research and advocacy programs. Prior to Enterprise, Diane was the director of the Public Housing Management and Occupancy Division at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where she managed a team overseeing the development and implementation of nationwide public housing policies, procedures, and guidelines. She also worked to advance affordable housing policies with Oxfam America and the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and served for 3 years as a community development Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia.

As a longtime partner of Children’s HealthWatch in the housing advocacy space, she deeply values the importance of data and research in spurring change and has seen firsthand how our research conveys how negatively unstable housing, hunger and the inability to pay utility bills can affect young children’s health and development and our families’ well-being. NLIHC has utilized our research as we worked with them and our other partners, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to create, launch and lead the Opportunity Starts at Home campaign, a long-term, multi-sector campaign to meet the rental housing needs of the nation’s lowest-income people.

Diane is frequently quoted in major media outlets, and has testified multiple times before Congress. She has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin.

“What Equity Looks Like” Webinar and Town Hall Series.

Our Housing Policy Briefs & Reports 

Our Other Publications Throughout the Years

Timeline: Achievements/Highlights/Testimonies

Past Children’s HealthWatch Celebrations