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| This Tuesday night, May 5th, marks a night we at MPHA have been working towards since the end of last year. It is the Social Innovation Forum: Innovator Showcase 2015. Out of more than 100 nonprofit applicants, MPHA was selected as one of only seven social innovators. Part of being an innovator involves giving the "five minute pitch" for what we do and who we are at MPHA. I will be delivering this pitch on Tuesday night at the Microsoft Center in Kendall Square. The event starts at 5:30pm and if you are interested in attending, tickets are available on the Social Innovation Forum website. I would love to see you there! As we look towards the spring- at long last! - join us at these upcoming events:
- The MPHA 13th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast on June 5th. We are looking forward to honoring our exciting lineup of public health heroes with you! Haven't purchased your ticket or sponsored the event yet? Learn more here.
- Join MPHA and Partners Healthcare at the State House on May 11th as we work to garner support for the Complete Streets Certification Program and state Mass in Motion funding. These programs are essential tools to advance health equity in the Commonwealth.
Want to help MPHA be a more effective communicator as we work to create healthy communities? Complete this short survey. Best wishes,
Rebekah Gewirtz Executive Director |
 Our Health, Our Future: 13th Annual Breakfast!
Join MPHA on Friday, June 5th for the Commonwealth's signature public health event of the year!
Our Health, Our Future: The 13th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast will take place at The State Room from 8:30-10:30am.
Purchase your tickets today!
Learn more about sponsorship and program book opportunities!
This year MPHA will honor the following leaders in celebration of their outstanding contributions to the betterment of public health in Massachusetts:
- Paul Revere Award: Renee Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center and Founding Director, Vital Village Community Engagement Network
- Lemuel Shattuck Award: Jose Rafael Rivera, Assistant Director of Community Engagement and Support, LUK, Inc.
- Alfred Frechette Award: Max Fripp, MEd, Executive Director, Playworks Massachusetts
- Public Service Award: Benjamin Wood, MPH, Healthy Community Design Coordinator, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
The Awards Breakfast is the signature event of the year for the public health community to come together to salute our partners, celebrate our accomplishments, reconnect with colleagues, and energize ourselves for public health advocacy going forward. Join us in celebrating these four visionary individuals while supporting MPHA! We hope to see you there!
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MPHA will Give its Pitch Tuesday, May 5th, as a Social Innovator
This year MPHA had the honor of being selected as a Social Innovator with the Root Cause Social Innovation Forum. MPHA was selected as one of seven Social Innovators out of a pool of more than 100 nonprofit applicants. This engagement is two years long and the first portion involves the lead innovator (in our case Rebekah Gewirtz) preparing a PowerPoint presentation to coincide with a five minute pitch to portray what MPHA does and our social impact. This pitch is reviewed by business executives and panels of experts before it is finalized and presented at the annual Innovator Showcase. There has been a lot of preparation to get us to this point and we are looking forward to sharing it! The Showcase includes a reception and all seven innovators will give their pitch in front of several hundred people from across the region. Please visit the Social Innovation Forum website for more information. Tickets are still available if you would like to attend and join in as we spark conversations on the best approaches to develop and spread innovation. |
May 11: MPHA hosts Active Streets, Healthy Families, Equitable Communities
 Join us May 11th at the Massachusetts State House in room 222 as we explore how policies and programs can foster more active streets, create healthier families, and achieve equitable communities. We will discuss the Complete Streets Funding Program and the Mass in Motion initiative and learn how these programs can reduce health disparities and expand opportunities for all. We will be joined by an exciting line-up of speakers, including Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel, as well as many partners and allies from across the state.
Please register for the event and share this flier with your networks. We look forward to working to achieve health equity in Massachusetts, together. |
MPHA Welcomes New Coalition & Field Organizer 
MPHA is excited to welcome our newest employee, Kristina St. Cyr. Kristina joins us as the new Coalition and Field Organizer. Kristina graduated from Fairfield University with a Bachelor's degree in International Studies and Spanish. She has been living and working on the U.S./Mexico border since 2011. In her previous work, Kristina assisted in building a Farm to School program within the Paso del Norte Region, lead the Dona Ana PLACE MATTERS health equity initiative which addresses social determinants of health, and coordinated the first Health Impact Assessment conducted in Dona Ana County. Kristina has a passion for working with communities to create healthier environments for everyone. Her wealth of experience makes her an excellent addition to our team. Welcome, Kristina! |
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MPHA is Moving on Up... The Hill (and modernizing, too)!
We are excited to announce that MPHA will be moving our office to Beacon Hill in the middle of May. As of May 18th our new address will be 14 Beacon Street, Suite 706. We will be joining many of our nonprofit friends and allies who are also located in this building. This strategic move will help us advance our advocacy efforts and continue to foster collaboration with other organizations and legislators. We are excited to be just steps from the State House and around the corner from our current office on Tremont Street. Come visit us!
In addition to our move to a great new physical space, MPHA is moving to a new, more modern website. In June we will share with you our new web address. Don't worry, the mphaweb.org address will still exist and will automatically redirect you to the new website. We are also in the process of updating our logo, and it will be unveiled in the very near future. Many great improvements ahead for MPHA- stay tuned!
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House Finalizes Tight Budget, Provides Funding for Housing and Violence Prevention
Earlier, this week the House completed work on its version of the FY16 state budget. With the state facing a $1.8 billion budget deficit for the year ahead, the House budget is very tight. The original budget proposal, released two weeks ago, included a significant increase for the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP), an important program that helps people access stable affordable housing. The House also adopted several important budget amendments earlier this week, including an increase in the Youth-At Risk line item and the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault line item, both of which fund important violence prevention programs. Read on |
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Finding Reliable and Sustainable Solutions to MBTA Woes
On Wednesday, April 22, the Baker Administration proposed new legislation to address critical problems with the MBTA. The proposals follow a report given by the Governor's Special Panel on the MBTA. The Special Panel rejected a reform v. revenue approach to stabilizing the troubled transit system. The proposed legislation, however, would restructure MBTA governance while shifting revenue away from the T and eliminating the legislatively mandated fare cap which protects riders from frequent and excessive fare increases. These proposals may force riders to choose between affordability and adequate service in the future and will likely leave riders paying more for the same level of service. MPHA prioritizes supporting adequate transportation revenue and funding for public and active transportation. We look forward to working with Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA), other advocates, and the Administration to find a reliable and sustainable solution to our state's transportation problems. Read on |
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Massachusetts SNAP Crisis is a Public Health Problem
Since 2014, the Massachusetts SNAP (food stamps) participation rate has declined at 8 times the national average, costing families and retailers $9.5 million per month in federal dollars. This decline is largely the result of unfiltered, erroneous data matching by the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), extreme verification demands, and automatic case closing without review. For many families and individuals, SNAP benefits prevent hunger and make affording healthy food possible. During the Fiscal Year 16 House budget debate, Representative Decker submitted an amendment MPHA supported that would bar DTA from denying or terminating benefits without proper justification. It would also require DTA to offer households the option of authorizing DTA to obtain documents relevant to eligibility from third parties such as employers. Read on
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 Spotlight: Paul Revere Award Honoree, Renée Boynton-Jarrett
We are pleased to offer the May 2015 installment of our Spotlight series to highlight MPHA partners and friends from across the state who are changing lives and communities to improve health and advance health equity. This month we are highlighting four public health heroes who will receive recognition for their incredible contributions to the advancement of health equity in the Commonwealth at Our Health, Our Future: MPHA's 13th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast on June 5, 2015.
 This year we are excited to honor Renée Boynton-Jarrett as our Paul Revere Award recipient at MPHA's 13th Annual Spring Awards Breakfast. The Paul Revere award is our highest honor, reserved for those who have made an outstanding impact on public health.
Dr. Boynton-Jarrett is a practicing pediatrician at the Boston Medical Center and a social epidemiologist. She is also the founding director of the Vital Village Community Engagement Network. The Vital Village Network supports the development of community-based strategies to promote child well-being in three Boston neighborhoods. Her work focuses on the role of early-life adversities as life course social determinants of health. Dr. Boynton-Jarrett is prominently featured in the documentary featured at MPHA's 2014 Annual Meeting, Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of America. To better understand the impact of her work to promote child well-being, see and hear her speak in the documentary's preview. Dr. Boynton-Jarrett has a specific interest in the intersection of community violence, intimate partner violence, child abuse and neglect, and the neighborhood characteristics that influence these patterns. View her impressive bio and list of recent publications on Boston Medical Center's website. Renée Boynton-Jarrett is the true embodiment of someone deserving of the Paul Revere Award. She joins the ranks of previous recipients of the Paul Revere Award such as Karen Darcy, Barbara Ferrer, Dr. Judith Palfrey, Dr. Paul Farmer, and Harold Cox. This year we are also excited to honor: Read on |
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Public Health Happenings
Public Health events & opportunities open to you!
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.4.15: TIGER Discretionary Grants pre-application deadline.
US DOT announced $500M in 7th round of TIGER funding. More information here.
5.6.15: Farm to School Day at the State House. The event will start at 12pm in the House Members Lounge. RSVP to [email protected] or call 413-253-3844.
5.6.15: CDC's Community Guide Webinar: Improving the Science of Built Environment and Public Health for Physical Activity. The webinar will start at 2pm. Register here.
5.7.15: 10th Annual New England TB Clinician's Conference. This conference is designed for clinicians who diagnose and treat persons with TB infection and disease. Physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are welcome to attend. Learn more and register here.
5.8.15: SCI Forum on Social Capital and Health.
Featuring keynote speaker Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of Boston University School of Public Health. This event will take place at 10:00am-1:00pm at the Boston University Medical Campus. The Forum is free but requires pre-registration. Register and learn more
here
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5.11.15: Active Streets, Healthy Families, Equitable Communities. Join MPHA and Partners Healthcare at the State House, room 222, from 11am-12pm. Learn more and register here.
5.13.15: APHA Webinar: A Public Health Approach to Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention. The webinar will start at 2pm. Register here.
6.2.15 & 6.3.15: Latino Challenges in the Struggle Against Racism. Explore the impact of racial disparities and how we can work together to achieve racial equity. Held in Boston. Register by May 27th. Lean more here.
6.4.15: Health and Community Development: Leveraging Resources and Opportunities for Collective Impact. 9:30am-12:30pm in Framingham, MA. Brought to you by the Mel King Institute. Learn more and register here.
6.5.15: MPHA's 13th Annual Awards Breakfast: Our Health, Our Future. The event will take place from 8:30 - 10:30 am at the State Room, Boston, MA.
Register here.
6.24.15 & 6.28.15: Society for Community Research and Action Summer Institute. Professional Development Workshops on Community Practice Competencies. All sessions will take place at UMass Lowell. More information
here.
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The Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA)
is the champion for public health in the Commonwealth. We are the catalyst for change, eliminating health inequities and creating healthy communities for all. For more information, visit us at
www.mphaweb.org
or call 857.263.7072.
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