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GET INVOLVED
ABWA would be privileged for your involvement in any of the projects or committees below.
Please take a look, and email us with your interests. Thanks!
The Deadliest Disease (click here for full article)
ABWA has adopted the film, The Deadliest Disease, as part of our community service mission and we are working to bring together supporters within the business, religious, educational and governmental sectors for the purpose of empowering local communities and prominent stakeholders to work together against racial and ethnic disparities in our health care system. Click here, for more information. You can preview a trailer of the film at http://urutherighttobe.org/disease/videoplaylist/trailer.html.
Program Committee
The committee works closely with the Board to plan existing ABWA programs and to develop programs throughout the year. The committee will also evaluate opportunities to co-sponsor events and opportunities with other professional groups. The committee is also involved in the planning and finding of speakers for each event.
Legislative Committee
The committee is responsible for monitoring and responding to legislation of interest that affects the African-American community, women and the legal profession. The committee is responsible for advocacy before local and state governmental bodies on issues of interest to our membership. The community should also develop ties to local legislators and political leaders and keeping them informed of ABWA’s activities and viewpoints.
Community Service
The committee is responsible for bridging the gap between the public and the members. There are numerous programs in the community which the committee staffs and in which it participates, such as the Thanksgiving Day Volunteer Activity at the Bowery Mission Men’s Transitional Center. We hope that the committee will build on this activity and others so that we can fulfill our theme of “Building Relationships and Empowering Our Community.”
Scholarship Committee
The committee reviews scholarship applications from law students in the New York and Tri-State area for the Ruth Whitehead Whaley Scholarship. The committee then picks the top students and personally interviews each one. The committee also assists the Board in raising money for each scholarship and allocating the money raised to each student.
Membership Committee
Since our operating revenues come from membership dues and donations, ABWA relies on recruiting and retaining a steady and strong membership base to maintain its programs and activities. The committee will also seek to pair current bar members with new or prospective members. Each committee member serves as a “liaison” to contact new members and arranges meetings at upcoming ABWA meetings or programs with the goal of making new members feel welcome.
The Officers and the Board of Directors
ABWA has four officers and five directors. Email us if you would like to be a part of this wonderful group of dynamic women.
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The Deadliest Disease in America
Have you ever felt as if your message was not heard, your point was missed, or no one paid attention to what you just said?
Most of us can think of at least one such experience. Can you think of a time when you felt that way, but you were desperate for help? Possibly, when you were ill, and really needed a doctor to pay attention.
We are currently in a national conversation about health care: the cost, the millions of uninsured and underinsured and the best way to increase access and affordability. Less well-known, however, is the issue of healthcare disparity. Healthcare disparity relates to the larger conversation about insurance coverage for everyone, prevention of disease, and scarcity of providers, but refers specifically to the differences in access to health care, in the presence of disease and in the health outcomes that exist across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. As our nation considers how best to improve our healthcare system, the issue of healthcare disparity would increase the ways in which we can view the healthcare debate and improve the system for everyone. A lack of financial resources, language barriers, health literacy and legal barriers all affect the provision of adequate healthcare in this country but have added significance in light of the healthcare disparities that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to face.
Research suggests that there are ways to reduce, and maybe even eliminate, health disparities. Raising awareness of this issue and educating ourselves on how to combat its effects is an important first step. A one-hour documentary, The Deadliest Disease in America, by Crystal Emery, is one way that individuals are working to raise awareness about this issue. The film is a powerful testimony to the devastating way that disparities in healthcare affect those who need care the most. Wonderfully, Mrs. Emery has created workshops and educational resources that work with the film for the purpose of empowering local communities and stakeholders. Through Mrs. Emery's work, we all have the ability to make a difference.
This year, ABWA has adopted this issue as part of our community service mission and we are working to bring together supporters within the business, religious, educational and governmental sectors for the purpose of empowering local communities and prominent stakeholders to work together against racial and ethnic disparities in our health care system.. Mrs. Emery's call for partnership could not have been more timely. Last year, ABWA's theme was about health and balancing our professional lives with our personal lives. We recognized that in order to contribute professionally and to our communities, we must take care of our bodies and our souls. This membership year, our theme has been empowering our communities. Working together we can make a big difference in the larger healthcare debate, and this film gives us the chance to empower those often left voiceless in the healthcare debate.
- 1U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Healthy People 2010: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives, conference ed. in two vols (Washington, D.C., January 2000).
- ^ Goldberg, J., Hayes, W., and Huntley, J. "Understanding Health Disparities." Health Policy Institute of Ohio (November 2004), page 3.
- ^ Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), "A Synthesis of the Literature: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Access to Medical Care" (October 1999)
- ^ Isaacs, J.D., Stephen L. and Steven A. Schroeder. "Class - The Ignored Determinant of the Nation's Health". New England Journal of Medicine 351.11 (Sep 2004), 1137-1142. Retrieved 12 November 2008: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/351/11/1137.pdf
- ^ Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU), "The Uninsured and Their Access to Health Care" (December 2003).
- ^ G. E. Fryer, S. M. Dovey, and L. A. Green, "The Importance of Having a Usual Source of Health Care," American Family Physician 62 (2000): 477.
- ^ Commonwealth Fund (CMWF), "Analysis of Minority Health Reveals Persistent, Widespread Disparities," press release (May 14, 1999).
- ^ K. Collins, D. Hughes, M. Doty, B. Ives, J. Edwards, and K. Tenney, "Diverse Communities, Common Concerns: Assessing Health Care Quality for Minority Americans," Commonwealth Fund (March 2002).
I am now reaching out to you. We invite you to host screenings of the film, to raise money and to generate support for a nationwide tour of the film, featuring the workshops and other educational resources.
Please, preview a trailer of the film at http://urutherighttobe.org/disease/videoplaylist/trailer.html. Also, below please find a description of the workshops that will accompany a tour of this film. We need you to get involved by making a donation, soliciting a donation or sponsoring a screening of this film. To help make this dream a reality, please contact Rosa Davis-Gallaher at ururosa@aol.com or 203.392.0983.
Donations can be made to "URU, The Right to Be, Inc." and mailed to P.O. Box 26925, West Haven, CT 06516.
You can also become involved by joining and/or promoting to others one or more of the nine workshops that Ms. Emery has designed to accompany the screenings of her film in communities throughout the nation. The workshop topics include:
(1) Dissecting Contempt: designed for medical professionals to consider tough questions regarding their own interactions with patients, such as how does power position itself in the doctor/patient relationship; are cultural differences influencing how you interact with your patients?
(2) Doctor-Patient Communication: focuses on how we communicate within the doctor/patient relationship and what cultural or religious factors may impact the way we communicate.
(3) Empowering Community Based Organizations: how do we engage our community organizations into the healthcare debate and take ownership of action.
(4) Fighting for Universal Healthcare: analyzes the misconceptions regarding universal healthcare and is designed for participants to work together to create a petition for local, regional, and national policy-makers.
(5) Healing Within: The Social Activist Within You: promotes the idea that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and looks at how to develop the foundation for social activism.
(6) How to Report Racism in Healthcare: tackles how to identify racism in healthcare and obstacles to reporting. Participants also receive a Reporting Toolkit that offers a guide to asking about and advocating for reporting systems in healthcare workplaces.
(7) Organizing for Policy Change-Working with Legislators: demystifies the legislation process and empowers participants to make legislative change.
(8) Support from Local Foundations: explores the grant-writing process, including identifying the necessary components of a successful grant, reference resources for assistance and specific language/terminology used in grant-writing.
(9) What The Church Can Do: after placing the health equity struggle into the historical context of the civil rights movement, participants develop individual plans for integrating the health equity movement into their own churches. Support materials are given to each participant to assist with promoting the health equity movement within their own church.
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