By Cori Stites on April 15, 2021
Program Associate
Health Forward Foundation
Join us for our newest blog series Pages with Partners, where Health Forward staff select a book to discuss with a community partner. If you have a book recommendation, fill out the form at the end of this post. Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights ActivistBy Judith Heumann and Kristen Joiner Judith […]
By Jennifer Tidwell on October 27, 2020
Division Manager, Housing and Community Development
City of Kansas City Missouri
Tania Hewett-Mader
Policy Associate, Health Forward Foundation
Few events in history highlight as clearly as the pandemic that housing and health are inherently connected. Families struggle to make ends meet after job loss or reduction in pay due to the coronavirus. At the onset of the pandemic, governments requested that residents stay at home, schools moved to a virtual environment, and many […]
By Karen Dehais on June 12, 2020
Evaluation and Learning Officer
Health Forward Foundation
Even as businesses and workplaces cautiously re-open, Health Forward is acutely aware that among low-income individuals and people of color, employment opportunities, working conditions, and benefits vary dramatically. Addressing these disparities is essential, as is advocating for policies that advance economic inclusion and health equity. Unemployment disparities We all know that too many people are […]
By Health Forward Foundation on June 2, 2020
The past three months have undeniably and climatically exposed the fact that racism is alive and the very culprit that’s caused millions of people of color to be unwell. After three months of isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic — which gripped our nation and claimed the lives of a disproportionate number of African Americans — […]
By Qiana Thomason on April 23, 2020
President/CEO
Health Forward Foundation
An abundance of national historical data reminds us that in public health, when America catches a cold, people of color catch pneumonia. As coronavirus (COVID-19) rips through our communities, it exposes social injustice and divisions that determine whether people have necessary resources to be healthy. As such, we are paying acute attention to nascent local […]
By Karen Dehais on August 8, 2019
Evaluation and Learning Officer
Health Forward Foundation
Early in my career I was tasked with collecting information about the characteristics of people lacking health insurance. As an eager graduate student intern, I worked diligently to gather, analyze, and share data on this vulnerable population. That research included visiting libraries, requesting and waiting days or weeks for journal articles (hard copies only!), and […]
By Tara Raghuveer on February 1, 2018
Researcher, Housing Campaign Lead
People's Action
Brent Schondelmeyer
Deputy Director - Community Engagement , Local Investment Commission (LINC)
Affordable housing is a neglected issue in Kansas City, largely unaddressed by policy and not yet a breakthrough topic in our public discourse. Affordable housing hasn’t garnered the civic interest or needed capital (public or private) of a new airport, light rail, convention hotel, sports complex, or any number of high-profile development projects. But it […]
By David Toland on September 19, 2017
Executive Director
Thrive Allen County
It is with tremendous excitement that we announce that our home — Allen County, Kansas — has been named as a 2017 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize winner. The Prize honors communities for their unwavering efforts to ensure all residents have the opportunity to live healthier lives. And that certainly describes what […]
By Faiz Kidwai, MPH, MS1 on May 11, 2017
Medical Student
Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences
There is little to no doubt that poverty and health are inextricably linked. If you are poor in the United States, you are more likely to die earlier,1 suffer from a mental illness2 and chronic medical conditions like obesity.3 And sadly, one could go on ad infinitum. There are several lessons that medical students took away […]
By Rachel Segobia on April 3, 2017
Executive Director
Lee’s Summit CARES
Peace begins with a smile. – Mother Teresa Individuals living outside of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, may pause when they hear about poverty in a city that is considered so affluent, but a 2013 survey conducted by the City of Lee’s Summit shows that this affluence only makes things more complicated. Lee’s Summit residents living at […]
