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Powerful communities are healthy communities. Health Forward Foundation’s approach to redistributing and sharing power is through advancing participation in democracy, amplifying community-driven movements, and strengthening small, community-based organizations and leaders.
Here’s the backstory on how our partners at Revolución Educativa are building power within Kansas City’s Latino community.
Edgar Palacios, RevEd Founder and CEO:
Our organization is really thinking critically about how to build sustained and collective power within Latino community around issues of education. One in four students in this country are Latino, and we see those numbers mirroring here in the greater Kansas City metro area. We have schools and districts that are up to 30% On the Missouri side, that number is up to 60% on the Kansas side. That representation is important because we know that students, when they see themselves reflected by teachers, administrators that serve them, they’re going to have better educational experiences and outcomes.
Cori Stites, Health Forward Impact Strategist:
The work of RevEd was particularly appealing because they’re connecting with a significant community of focus for us, the Latino community in Kansas City, and we know that people don’t — you can’t convince people to get out and vote just because it matters, because it’s important. People need to feel passionate about something. They need to have a candidate or a policy they care about that motivates them to get out and get engaged.
We’re in the fourth district of the city and it’s important for our elected officials to really understand the value that we add to our neighborhoods and the value that we bring to our neighborhoods. And so getting folks to be politically engaged and be politically active is an important part of this work. And through the (c)(4) organization, we have the means to do that. Our work looks different every day, but our commitment doesn’t. It could mean us going into a board meeting and providing public comment. It could mean us working behind the scenes with certain board members to really help inform the way that they’re thinking about policy and the ways that they’re thinking about their upcoming votes. It could also mean we’re trying to prospect new candidates, right? We’re trying to build new leadership within our community and really identifying people that we think care about young people and care about young Latino people specifically, but also their values align with our values and that we know that we’re going to work with them and really building the school system that we desire.
That’s really what RevEd is doing. Connecting the dots between concerns around education and wanting families and kids and communities to have all the opportunities they deserve.
The more that we do the work of education and the more that we demonstrate that voices do matter and that community does matter, and that bringing people together demonstrates power, I think the more that you’re going to see the voting registration numbers increase and improve, the more that you’re going to see elected officials really engage our community for their vote. Right?
And when we talk about power, we mean a number of things, including supporting and growing grassroots organizations that are really connected to the communities they serve, as well as increasing civic engagement as a form of building power.
I think Health Forward Foundation has been really a breath of fresh air. It’s been really cool to see an organization wrestle deeply with race and injustice and inequities within our community. And to have funding from Health Forward Foundation, one validates the experiences that we know to be true. And then two, lets know that they are committed partners to this work.
RevEd is a wonderful partner. Both their (c)(3) and (c)(4) sides are doing work that Health Forward cares about. While we are a health focused funder, not an education focused funder per se, there are strong intersections there. RevED is really hitting priorities we care about in communities we care about.
I also appreciate how the Health Forward Foundation is rethinking health. That change in mindset really does make a positive impact on how people are approaching their own health and what’s more healthy than having hope.
