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2023-01-13
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The Future of a Dreamed Imagining
A narrative case study of an equity-first response
Hadija Steen Mills
University of Minnesota
Abstract
The year 2020 in the Twin Cities was a display of intersecting oppressions and the resounding impacts of inequities. The echoing consequences of unrealized equity-first policies are still vibrating the world. The field of public health has entered a new chapter and there is great possibility to embrace new ways of being that center the communities who experience unjust burdens of inequities.
In South Minneapolis, the community’s response to the bisecting crises was unique and pulled from a future vision where everyone is fed, clothed, housed, and loved. Using that vision as a lodestar, the bridge between that future and the present was operationalized through the use of cross-discipline methods and approaches. The result was the erection of Community-Informed COVID-19 testing amidst the onslaught of the pandemic and uprising in Minneapolis.
This narrative case study is a call for a shift from public health to public healing that centers on the liberation of the most oppressed communities. This shift will require collaboration and co-conspiration in action and thought to move toward policy that puts equity first and does not relegate it to an afterthought.
