- When elected officials see Georgia's standup coming
with our orange shirts on with the community
and they say oh, what do you want now?
When we hear that they're concerned
about our issues because we're showing up with 50
to 100 people, and people are demanding
in a responsible way
that their elected officials serve them,
that's community power.
(upbeat inspiring music)
- [Woman] No justice!
- [Group] No peace.
- [Woman] No justice!
- [Group] No peace.
- [Woman] No justice!
- [Group] No peace.
- No justice!
- [Group] No peace.
(casual uplifting music)
- Where public health is really starting to get
is the social determinants of health.
They understand that health inequities
are the result of inequities of housing
and in transportation, in criminal justice,
in all these areas.
- It's not just about visiting a doctor,
but it's about the parks,
and it's about access to food.
And it's about whether you're safe walking home from school.
- Whether you have a roof over your head,
transportation, a job where you can afford
to put healthy food on the table for yourself
and your families.
- One of the things that we've been insisting on
for a very long period of time was the power of organizing.
- Righteous range a center in love.
So rage is not the opposite of love, right,
indifference is the opposite of love,
and that's what our communities have been experiencing.
- To have our communities really live comfortably
and with dignity,
we need to ensure that they're getting paid
for what their work is worth,
and that rents or housing cost are simply manageable.
- If neighborhoods aren't organized,
especially with so much development happening so rapidly,
this is when displacement happens.
- There's data out there now
to tell you how long you're gonna live
by your zip code.
Housing is the nucleus
to all these other intersectional issues.
- When I see the suffering in our communities,
when I see that elected officials
are ignoring the desires of the electorate
and they haven't expanded Medicaid
and people are actually dying,
we need to build more power.
- Clayton County has the world's busiest airport.
The county actually stopped bus service,
and so many of the residents were walking alongside
the streets and the sidewalks looking
for a way to get to work.
- If we've got community members identifying
what the problems are, identifying what the solutions are,
and doing the organizing and power-building
that lists those obstacles, it's very different
than if an agency comes in from outside.
- Any attempt to transform this system
has to be led by and informed by the wisdom,
the experience and the intelligence, frankly,
of those who have lived and been discriminated against
by those systems.
- Right like, just getting myself.
The solution is to organize the people
in such a way that they understand
and believe and know that they are the power.
- The City of Boulder sees organizing as a tool
that can support community members and support the health
of individuals and entire neighborhoods.
When we do get community involved,
better policies are passed.
- In 2016, we passed a ballot initiative
to increase the minimum wage to $12.
In 2019, we passed a bill to allow local municipalities
to increase their own minimum wage.
- Community power gives us the opportunity
to really have a platform
to talk about what's most important to us.
Our goal is to make housing a human right.
- For every effort that we embark on,
there's a legislative approach.
Organizing and boots on the ground strategy,
a litigation, communications,
and as a technology strategy.
- We had coalition members come together,
we knocked on doors, we called people,
we had activities to get the awareness out there,
and we were surprised
that people were willing to tax themselves
to get transportation.
Every time I see that bus go up the street,
I just get excited because we know
that we were a part of that success.
- We cannot continue down this path
where so many people do not have access
to the basic and fundamental ingredients
for a healthy and balanced life.
- For public health to really make an impact
on health inequity then, it needs to shift power imbalances
that are fueled by various forms
of oppression like racism and sexism.
- And now there's a big opening
to understand that public health will only be achieved
if communities have the power to voice their concerns
and to shift the political calculus to decide
where resources get directed.
- If we are going to build a society
that works for all of our families,
it is critical that we evaluate the problems
and that we develop solutions through a race,
gender, and class lens.
Not one or the other, but all of them.
(inspiring classical music)