Family Unity, Family Health: How Family-Focused Immigration Reform Will Mean Better Health for Children and Families

This report builds on a body of evidence on the impact of immigration policy on communities, paying particular attention to the health and mental health of children and families.Using existing research, predictive quantitative analysis and data from a convenience survey and two focus groups, this reportshines a light on the consequences of a continued policy of detention and deportation on: physical health, mental health, educational and behavioral outcomes among children; adult health status and lifespan; and economic hardship and food access in households

Bridging Bays, Bridging Borders: Global Justice and Community Organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area

We offer this document as our own effort to build the inclusion and understandings that will help both communities and leaders recognize the grassroots wisdom and issues that could help us realize the positive impacts from globalization and minimize the negative aspects that have concerned us all. Another world is possible, but it is up to us to build it

Drowning in Debt: A Health Impact Assessment of How Payday Loan Reforms Improve the Health of Minnesotas Most Vulnerable (Full Report)

This Health Impact Assessment (HIA) looks at the compelling evidence of the harm caused by payday loans to the health and mental health of borrowers, their families, and their communities. It shows that reforms to payday lending – including elimination of the practice in the state – will help slow the drain on individual and community resources, reducing stress and preventing further harm to health and well-being

Advocacy in HIA: Increasing Our Effectiveness and Relevance as Practitioners to Address Health, Equity, and Democracy

The role of advocacy in Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is debated among practitioners. Concerns revolve around whether engaging in advocacy undermines objectivity and credibility. While there is agreement that dissemination of findings and recommendations is necessary, there is a spectrum of activities that can be undertaken in an HIA, one end of which might be considered advocacy. In this Perspective from the Field, We posit that in conducting an HIA, practitioners are choosing to advocate for a set of causes that may include improved health, decreased inequity, and increased democracy. We come to the table with these values and the intent to advocate for them. For any HIA to be relevant and effective at advancing these causes in decision-making contexts, practitioners must use the best available evidence and a range of strategies to communicate evidence to policy audiences, including deliberate tactics with community organizations, decision makers, and others that can aid in addressing power imbalances. Though we believe that HIA practice cannot reach its full potential without embracing advocacy, practitioners must make decisions given their context, including local power dynamics as to how far into the advocacy spectrum they venture in any given HIA. This paper is geared towards HIA practitioners and others who want to understand the opportunity advocacy provides. We begin by describing the underlying values of HIA that inspire this perspective, including those in the 1999 Gothenburg Consensus Paper on HIA (Quigley et al., 2006). After briefly describing concerns HIA practitioners may have with advocacy, particularly that it undermines the objectivity and credibility of the HIA process, we then discuss common advocacy activities practitioners might undertake, and ways to address risks these activities may pose. These opportunities to undertake advocacy include partnering with diverse stakeholders, developing advisory committees, gauging the power and policy context, and thinking broadly about the best tactics to effectively communicate findings. We conclude with a case study describing how advocacy was used in the Treatment Instead of Prison HIA in Wisconsin to advance health, equity, and democracy

Excessive Revocations in Wisconsin: The Health Impacts of Locking People Up without a New Conviction

Revocation—being incarcerated for breaking the rules of a supervision arrangement (like parole, probation, or extended supervision)—feeds the mass incarceration cycle in the United States. Estimates suggest that across the U.S., half of the people in jails and more than one-third of the people entering prison are locked up for a revocation.A large number of people are incarcerated for breaking the rules of supervision, but do not commit a new crime. In Wisconsin, the Department of Corrections (DOC) put about 3,000 people in prison in 2015 alone for what DOC calls a "revocation without a new offense," meaning there was not a new criminal conviction. These people will serve an average of 1.5 years in prison without being convicted of a new crime—and cost Wisconsin $147.5 million dollars in the process

Drowning in Debt: A Health Impact Assessment of How Payday Loan Reforms Improve the Health of Minnesotas Most Vulnerable (Executive Summary)

This Health Impact Assessment (HIA) looks at the compelling evidence of the harm caused by payday loans to the health and mental health of borrowers, their families, and their communities. It shows that reforms to payday lending – including elimination ofthe practice in the state – will help slow the drain on individual and community resources, reducing stress and preventing further harm to health and well-being