Alizeti Mental Health and Wellness Services celebrates the certificate ceremony of its newly developed Doula Training Program—a culturally responsive workforce initiative designed to equip aspiring birth and postpartum community doulas with foundational knowledge, hands-on skills, and clear pathways to Medi-Cal certification. This transformative 16-hour Community Doula Training Program meets California state requirements for Medi-Cal vendor ...

In a historic announcement, a coalition of leading Black faith organizations and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) unveiled a strategic partnership and plan aimed at confronting systemic disparities impacting African American communities nationwide. Dr. Boise Kimber, President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Presiding Bishop of the Church of ...

By Dianne Anderson Years of unequal access to healthcare only made matters worse when COVID-19 hit, leading to more health disparities, more job loss leading to unpaid rent, and more evictions and homelessness, amid learning loss and failing students. That compounded effect and bias in communities already facing dire statistics is not a fast fix. ...

By Dianne Anderson Getting the right medical help depends on more than a few factors – one of which is whether the medical system, or the doctor on call, is a racist with a big “R” or little “r.” Race-based disparities are well-studied over decades, showing stark disparities in equitable access to healthcare, and typically ...

By Dianne Anderson Why Black women continue to die more than white women during childbirth is not so much the medical mystery that some might believe. For the most part, health equity is key in the Black-white gap. “CDC data show that Black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Natl Correspondent The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education has released a wealth of data from the 2020–21 school year in a revealing exposé that reveals significant disparities in education access that the coronavirus pandemic challenges have exacerbated. The findings paint a stark ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Sr Natl Correspondent A recent report from the Sentencing Project has revealed significant strides have been made in reducing racial inequities in incarceration over the past two decades. However, the study also warns that ongoing pushback from policymakers threatens to impede further progress. The report, titled “One in Five: ...

By Charlene Crowell Closing gaps would create 1.7M jobs, add $300-450B to the economy As the global pandemic continues to take lives and infect multiple generations, virtually every dimension of life is challenged. And people with the fewest financial resources before COVID-19 are being challenged more than ever before. It is both a challenge and ...

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. Today, Americans are facing unprecedented times. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, our country has fallen into an economic recession, and hundreds of thousands are protesting police brutality and racial injustice. But there is another epidemic in this country that must be addressed, and it must ...

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire The First Step Act, which replaced a federal “three strikes” rule that imposed a life sentence for three or more convictions – with a 25-year sentence, is benefiting thousands of incarcerated Black men, according to a new report. More than 1,000 individuals incarcerated in federal prisons were granted sentence ...