Health Equity

Our Funding Focus

Public health and health care

Health equity exists when every child and family can achieve optimal health, nurtured by community contexts and appropriate, culturally relevant supports. The COVID-19 era illustrated what many in the field have long known: structures and systems of oppression – especially racism – are at the root of health inequities.

Although the public health emergency officially ended in early 2023, COVID and its aftermath continue to impact communities. The public health system received unprecedented funding, yet the sector continues to grapple with its future. Public health suffers from an inequitable flow of resources into communities, a lack of coordination with other sectors and communities and extreme vulnerability to political whims.

Our health equity work focuses on:

• Protecting and promoting access to health care coverage for children and families.
• Building capacity in the public health system to advance health equity.
• Supporting policies that promote a racially equitable health system, including the social determinants of health.

Our grantees making a difference

• Reflecting on milestones in dental therapy, a national movement to increase access to quality oral health care.