LOCATION: Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.

ORGANIZATION TYPE: Non-for-profit advocacy

FOCUS AREA: Education, Environment / Land Use, Health Care Delivery, Housing / Neighborhoods, Immigration, Income & Wealth, Jobs & Work, Race / Ethnicity, Social Inclusion, Transportation

HEALTH EQUITY INITIATIVES: We are a multi-issue faith-based organization working for racial and economic justice. We have 100 member congregations in the Metropolitan Area and St. Cloud. We have a long history of working for equity in our region through working on campaigns that would unite our region, make public investments in transportation, education, workforce development, housing, etc. Recently, we have passed a 10 year Transportation and Transit Bill that would make over 140 million dollars a year into our regions transit system.

We have begun to look at our work through the lens of health equity and asking the question in church forums, in public gatherings with officials, in meetings with public health professionals, in community dialogues--What is health? What will make all of us more healthy? What will make Minnesota healthy into the future? We believe this conversation has a lot of power to shift the public debate so as to move even more deeply our racial and economic equity agenda in the state, to unite a diverse constituency and to build more alliances across sectors and silos.

We are hosting a two day event in May with Dr. Anthony Iton, john powell, Dr. Bobby Milstein for the CDC. During these two days we will engage our key partner, SEIU Healthcare MN, in a deep conversation about how we can construct an agenda that will truly create health. We will also engage 100-150 members, allies and public officials in an introduction to health equity and what it may imply about organizing and strategy. Then, we will be engaging major providers in an intimate discussion about how health equity creates an opportunity to partner for a larger vision beyond healthcare reform.

ACTIVITIES WITH UNNATURAL CAUSES CAMPAIGN:
- Host a screening event featuring UNNATURAL CAUSES
- Use the series and materials in trainings or classes