Schedule
9:00 - 9:40 AM
Breakfast & Registration
9:45 - 9:55 AM
Welcome Remarks
10:00 -10:50 AM
Keynote: What is Violence?
Dr. Rob Gore
11:00 - 12:30 PM
Roots of Community Violence Panel
The panel will explore what are some of the roots of violence in the community, how medical apartheid and medical racism intersects with community violence and how hospitals are a site of both violence and healing.
Dr. Ramon Gist from King's County Hospital
RJ Thompson from the Urban Justice Project
Amin Husain from Decolonize this Place
Facilitator: Woods Ervin from Critical Resistance
12:40 - 1:20 PM
Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 PM
ACT & LEARN Workshops
Workshop Descriptions Below
3:15 - 4:45 PM
Community Healing Through Transformative Justice Panel
This panel aims to answer the questions: When there is violence, how do we respond as a society, as a neighborhood, as a hospital? What are better responses? How do mass incarceration and policing affect the health of our communities?
Sandra van den Heuvel from Vera Institute
Dr. Kamini Doobay from NYC Coalition to Dismantle Racism in the Health System
Hawk Newsome from Black Lives Matter of Greater NY
Brian Cunningham from Neighbors in Action
Facilitator: Dr Simon Fitzgerald
4:45 - 5:00 PM
Closing Remarks
5:00 - onwards
Social Hours
Come hang out with the conference organizers!
Queen Bee's Tavern
3023 Church Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11226
ACT Workshops
Working to End Policing in Hospitals Working Group
This working group will create an editorial on policing in hospital settings. This workshop is geared towards community members, community organizers, students, trainees, faculty, and community members who can speak to their own experiences and produce an editorial to be published.
Are prisons the only place to get mental health services?
Why are jails and prisons considered the primary provider for mental health treatment across New York State? Lead by Sandra van den Heuvel, a program associate at the Vera Institute, this workshop will focus on how people with mental health issues are introduced to the criminal justice system and provided few resources to recover from both incarceration and mental health issues. This workshop will also unpack how the entanglement of mental health treatment and the justice system drives mass incarceration and racially disparate incarceration trends.
"I Can't Breathe"--Police Accountability for Denying Healthcare
Black Lives Matter of Greater New York will lead a workshop on a piece of legislation coming to Albany called the Andrew Kearse Act, which will make it illegal to deny healthcare to those who are in police custody. This act is in response to two deaths in police custody in New York state, Andrew Kearse and Eric Garner.
Are We Complicit? How Inequitable Hospital Funding and Medical Racism Perpetuate Racial Health Disparities
Why does Central Brooklyn, home of SUNY Downstate, have the highest rates of Severe Maternal Morbidity in NYC?
Black womxn in NYC are twelve times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes and 50% of that disparity is explained by poor quality care provided at high-Black serving hospitals. Katy McFadden CMN RNC-NIC will be discussing the roots of these disparities in care in our healthcare system, hospital funding and in the racism of doctors. She will also discuss how poor NICU and OBGYN care leads to lifelong poor outcomes for children which can lead to cognitive and behavioral issues that feeds into the school to prison pipeline. Workshop participants will work on getting Albany support for equitable funding for SUNY Downstate.
New Jails with Services is Not Justice
This workshop will introduce participants to the NYC's multi-billion new jail plan and critical perspectives on why we should stop it, even though it was recently approved by the New York City Council. We will discuss concepts such as the abolition of the prison industrial complex and where possible relate it to public health and mental health strategies endeavored by the City's new jails plan. Recent research shows that local governments across the country aim to rebuild or expand their carceral systems as a way to provide public and mental health services. The goals of this workshop are to develop an understanding of abolition as both a vision and strategy and from the perspective of public health practitioners.
LEARN Workshops
Human Right to Health in the US
Lead by RJ Thompson, Project Director of the Human Rights Project, this workshop will focus on what the human right to health from the perspective of human rights law as well as why and how. The US fails to recognize health as a human right and what it would take to move us toward a rights based health system in this country.
Health, Housing and Justice in NYC
Lead by workshop will cover the background history of public housing in New York as well as current policies that affect families including chronic repair issues, challenges to affordability and eviction prevention. We will review what tenants and advocates can do to respond to NYCHA issues like mold, lead paint, rent increases, adding/removing family members, succession rights, and more.
School to Prison Pipeline
Nicole Y. Charles from Bronx Westchester Area Health Education Center will lead a discussion on the disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counselling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished and pushed out. "Zero-tolerance" policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while cops in school lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline. This workshop seeks to discuss what the school-to-prison pipeline is, who it impacts, and how it is a result of structural violence.
Communities of Color by the Numbers: Racism and Healthcare in America
Chivona Renee Newsome, congressional candidate for NY-15 leads the presentation on racial injustice with a specific lens into health injustice using current research and relevant data.. Participants will leave with greater awareness of the impact of our medical system to our most vulnerable communities. We will take a close look of discriminatory health care policies, segregation, and unjust practices among institutions.
Co-Sponsors
SUNY Downstate White Coats for Black Lives
SUNY Downstate Students for a National Health Program
SUNY Downstate PRIDE
Downstate Students for Choice
SUNY Downstate American Medical Student Association
SUNY Downstate John Conley Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities
SUNY Downstate Alumni Association
SUNY Downstate Office of Diversity Education and Research
Kings Against Violence Initiative
Daniel-Hale Williams Society
Get in Touch
We hope you're able to attend. If you have questions don’t hesitate to reach out. Let us know if there is an action-oriented workshop you would like to attend!
Wheelchair accessible and working on ASL translator. Please let us know about any other disability needs.
395 Lenox Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA