Category: Social Factors

Uneven opportunity: Safe and available employment during a pandemic

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Pandemic Impact, Policy, Social Factors

Emerging data show COVID-19 disproportionately impacts communities of color

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Health Reform, Healthy Communities, Pandemic Impact, Policy, Social Factors

Data – An increasingly powerful tool to inform health strategy

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Evaluation, Grant Writing, Social Factors

Addressing housing, a healthy move for Kansas City

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Healthy Communities, Policy, Social Factors

Allen County wins Culture of Health Prize

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Health Care, Healthy Communities, Mental Health Care, Oral Health, Policy, Safety Net, Social Factors, Tobacco

Medical students need to understand poverty and its pernicious effect on health

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Safety Net, Social Factors

In-school therapy combined with parenting program make world of difference for families

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 […]

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CATEGORIES
Behavioral Health Care, Social Factors

HealthStart Academy inspires urban students to enter health sciences careers

By Susan Wally on October 6, 2016
CEO
PREP-KC

In the Kansas City region, people of color are underrepresented in health sciences occupations. Additionally, there are too few candidates to meet the workforce demands of this growing field. According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, health care and social assistance is the highest employment and wage growth industry in Kansas City—but only […]

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CATEGORIES
Social Factors

Kansas City foster-parent group grows to nationally recognized agency

By Lori Ross on September 29, 2016
CEO and President
FosterAdopt Connect

In 1998, I joined a handful of Kansas City-area foster parents at a support group meeting in Eastern Jackson County. In that meeting, people who were new to fostering, and people who had fostered for a while, were sharing their experiences and challenges and seeking solutions together. I quickly decided that I wanted to be […]

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CATEGORIES
Behavioral Health Care, Mental Health Care, Social Factors


Health Forward Blog aims to discuss health and health policy issues that impact those most in need in our communities. If you would like your organization to be featured on our blog, please contact us.

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