All three days of the BUILD: Community Connections convening were filled with knowledge sharing, learning, and relationship building (for more, see our last blog post here). The expansive breadth and depth of the content shared with the attendees covered building collaboratives, centering communities, working towards equity and justice, and telling the powerful story of their collective impact.
Early on the first day of programming, BUILD alumni shared their expertise with the new cohort on a panel featuring Eric Burmeister from BUILD Des Moines, Natasha Butler from BUILD Houston, and Kim Foreman from BUILD Cleveland. Panelists discussed the intricacies of building successful partnerships and what it really takes. Through their dialogue, they unveiled the ebb and flow of collaboration, highlighting their triumphs and learnings. Their commitment to fostering system change was evident as they generously offered their wisdom and support to the current cohort, ensuring our BUILD community’s continued, connected strength.
Healthcare and public health leader, health policy expert, educator, and author, Daniel Dawes delivered a powerful keynote that connected our network to a national race and health equity movement. He emphasized that understanding our country’s history and the rise of inequitable structures is critical to achieving health equity. Deeper than social determinants of health, we must examine the policies that created those social structures. For every inequity, a preceding ordinance, law, or act enabled its creation. Professor Dawes explored opportunities and moments of transformation in our history and asked us to consider, “How are you leveraging momentum for your community?”
During breakout sessions, attendees could select from a wide range of topics to dive deeper into specific skills and interest areas related to their BUILD initiative. In the Building Momentum for Policy Change session by ChangeLab Solutions, attendees learned about bold, upstream policy planning – and what it takes to break big change into small steps. In Using Data and Evaluation to Advance Equity, attendees strategized with Equal Measure on how to implement equitable data collection methods and data use. In Toolkit for Cross-Sector Partnerships, the Non-Profit Finance Fund shared tools available for navigating operations, finance, staffing, and other factors in multi-sector partnerships to ensure they are fair and equitable for partners. In Federal Priorities in Community Health, attendees connected with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) representatives to learn more about the federal landscape of community health initiatives. Finally, at Storytelling for Racial Repair, the Media 2070 Project explored racial repair frameworks and ways to engage in storytelling to invest in interconnected community power.
Next up, we heard from members of the BUILD Funding Collaborative on a panel called How Philanthropy is Working Towards Racial Equity. Panelists Jamila Porter from the de Beaumont Foundation, Gabriel Jaramillo from Vitalyst Health, and Caroline Brunton from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation spoke about the importance of bringing together hospitals, public health, and community members together for collective action. They discussed how important community-driven work can be in influencing the way funders address public health issues.
Finally, we came together to explore what it takes to center racial justice in community collaborative work. This session was co-facilitated by Success Measures and BUILD alumni who have served as advisors to BUILD’s racial equity journey and strategy. Participants worked through thoughtful discussions and activities to identify and integrate learnings shared by BUILD alumni into their work. As a culminating gesture of commitment, participants were asked to pen letters – promises to themselves, their teams, and the broader community – outlining their hopes, strategies, and vision for the future of their work to advance racial justice and health equity in their neighborhoods.
It was incredible to see bonds strengthened within and across communities at the 2023 BUILD convening. This progress was particularly heartening since the very essence of BUILD’s model rests on community-driven, multi-sector relationships. Attendees gained fresh insights and skills with a chance for reflection, strategy, and planning grounded in racial justice and health equity values at every step. As Mshairi Siyanda said, it is “the voices of the many” that can bring about the most significant momentum for building community power, and this gathering of over 100 people showed just how tangible that change can be.
This work would not be possible alone. Thank you to the many partners who made this event possible, including: Bethany Kuerten, Lynne Le, Mshairi Siyanda, Carrie Oliver, Arlene Parker Goldson, Natasha Butler, Eric Burmeister, Kim Foreman, Daniel Dawes, Sara Bartel, Edgar Camero, Cesar De La Vega, Hollie Storie, Alexandra Chan, Eskedar Getahun, Alicia Bell, Collette Watson, Karen Hacker, Ruth Peterson, Craig Thomas, Eve Weiss, Siobhan Costanzo, Kristin Giordano, Jamila Porter, Gabriel Jaramillo, Caroline Brunton, Jessica Mulcahy, Helen Moore, Jamilla Pinder, and the Loudermilk Conference Center.
To learn more about The BUILD Health Challenge, our model, and what we’ve learned from BUILD communities, please visit our Resources.
