Expanding School Based Health Centers Webinar Slides and Presentation

Missed the webinar on June 23rd 2020 presented by the Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Regional Operations and the Massachusetts School-Based Health Alliance ? The one hour ‘lunch and learn’ webinar exploring the benefits of school-based health centers and opportunities for expanding school-based health in Massachusetts can still be viewed here!

The recording of the webinar can be found here (adobe connect required): https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/pq12n3pn9cg9/

For just the slides:

MASBHA: Black Lives Matter

The mission of the Massachusetts SBHA is to promote the health, resilience and academic success of children and adolescents in collaboration with community partners committed to advocating for student well-being through school based health centers

Black Lives Matter.

 

The Massachusetts School-Based Health Alliance (MASBHA) stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement to end systemic racism, condemn violence, confront bias and inequity, and promote social justice for all people of color.

The school-based health centers that we support operate at the intersection of education and health care; MASBHA recognizes the complex ways that racism operates within these systems.  As an organization, we believe that we must not just mourn the broken foundation upon which our country is built, we must commit to change through working to dismantle institutional or personal responses that continue or promote inequity.  We acknowledge the fact that the majority of us who lead MASBHA are white. We need to do better, intentionally engaging BIPOC on the Board to ensure that it is more representative of the communities that we serve, and that the voices and perspectives of all are heard. MASBHA has a role to play in undoing white supremacy, and that undoing requires us to examine ourselves and have honest, uncomfortable and ongoing conversations about power, privilege, biases and perceptions. 

We know that systemic racism affects health outcomes of communities and that many of our communities are disproportionately impacted by racialized violence and trauma.  We believe students of color should be able to attend school without fear that their behavior will be criminalized and that schools should be safe havens for all students regardless of  immigration status. We support students and families as they navigate and respond to their own experiences of racism and injustice in our society. 

We cannot be complacent in our response and need to be clear in our statements and actions. Silence at this moment is not an option. This is not the time to get discouraged. It's the time to listen with humility, to learn, and most of all, to show up.  MASBHA will stand together with SBHCs and pledges to do better as individuals, as an organization, and as a system to fight the racism around us. 

 

Link to Statement by National SBHA President Robert Boyd 

Creating Our Future: An Evening of Networking and Action

Advocates for school based health braved the cold November night and some light snow to attend our Fall networking event on November 15, 2018. This event was the launch of our membership drive! Participants were invited to officially become members of the MASBHA. for $50 for the year.

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Many thanks to all who participated in our recent event at MGH-Boston: 'Creating Our Future: An Evening of MA SBHA Networking and Action'. Despite the snowy evening, there was great energy, passion, community, and warmth evident in the shared networking, brainstorming and action planning regarding each of the MA School Based Health Alliance (SBHA) Committees focused on: (1) Advocacy, (2) Communication (3) Programming and (4) Organizational Development. 

         Recent MASBHA committee updates and successes were shared, as well as the results of the recent 'Survey of the SBHC Field in Massachusetts'. The membership drive was initiated - accompanied by a variety of 'MASBHA swag' - and the group focused on brainstorming and planning best next steps for each committee's role in meeting the mission of MASBHA: '...to promote the health, resilience, and academic success of children and adolescents, in collaboration with community partners committed to advocating for student well-being through school-based health centers'.

       The priorities of all committees and discussions had a common, and often overlapping, focus on (1) advocacy for the important work of school-based health centers, for enhancing the health of children and adolescents, and for insuring access to integrated health care for all, especially for more vulnerable populations; (2) choosing multiple methods and strategies for communicating, connecting, supporting, sharing expertise, and collaborating with colleagues, school, and community collaborators (on local, state, and national levels); (3) developing a programming framework of events and opportunities matching the MASBHA mission and inclusive of SBHC professionals across all regions of the state, the students and 'student-voice', school colleagues, families, communities, health organizations, and other important SBHC stakeholders and advocates; and (4) developing creative and sustainable organizational development strategies and funding sources for insuring that the mission, vision, goals, and priorities of the MASBHA can be carried out with integrity. 

       There is an upcoming Advocacy Day, designated as 'Massachusetts School-Based Health Alliance Day On the Hill', to be held on Wednesday, 3/20/19 from 10:00 - 12:00 in Nurses Hall at the Massachusetts State House, and this will be our next exciting collaborative event. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Membership drive starts! Look! Water bottle with sign up! PENS!

Membership drive starts! Look! Water bottle with sign up! PENS!

Reflection and Resistance

As social workers in clinical settings we live so deeply into the individual lives of our clients, learning their fears and worries, hopes and encouraging their dreams. And we are beside ourselves when we think of our students or any other child being ripped from parents arms screaming for the comfort of their family. I hear over and over again from my colleagues that we are in the “trenches” each day doing the micro work, and I sense that we struggle to find our macro voice in all this chaos. Sometimes hearing the news fires us up into action and for others I think we allow ourselves a pass; because we do important individual work, we give ourselves permission not to consider what our wider impact could and should be. And we are tired, very very tired.

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Implicit Bias and the Healthcare Provider

"This year, I also find myself reflecting on privileges that I, as a white individual, raised in an upper, middle class family, and educated in an affluent school district, experience.  Privilege that surely contributes to my perception of the winter holidays as a season of effortless joy, indulgent eating, time off work, gift exchanges, and peaceful rest with my family...Many of the students we care for in school-based health centers are not privy to this level of societal privilege.  Understanding the painful realities, inequities, and stacked disadvantages our patients face is essential to providing them with competent health services."

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Advocacy 101

Advocacy 101 by Allison Kilcoyne

 

Have you called Washington DC lately? Do you know your US Representative in Congress? Do you know your Senator’s health care legislative aide?  If not, now it is time.  Today.  

There has been much talk about getting our voices heard. Facebook groups, marches, signing petitions online, writing emails – that is helpful.  What is more powerful is developing a personal relationship with our elected officials and their legislative aides.  Find that scary?  Intimidating?  Or do you say to yourself “what is the point, we have it pretty good here in Massachusetts.”  Here are some of my thoughts having been to Capitol Hill many times over the past few years. CLICK TO READ MORE

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