Third COVID-19 Conversation Series: Recovery and regeneration in the face of overlapping crises

The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequities that communities have known about for decades. The pandemic has also been experienced very differently across groups and individuals. This new public awareness highlights the need to center equity in all our responses. In this first session, we take the time to think about the value of deep listening and actively engaging with communities as a public health action. We will explore topics of language, voice, culture, and social cohesion in the face of COVID-19 and other emergent or current public health threats. 

In this session, we look at what it means to lead and at the elements of leadership that are most critical during challenging times. We will explore varied perspectives on the core values of leadership in Public Health, what community leadership means, and the importance of listening and compassion in leadership. We will also discuss the supports and mechanisms that are available for leaders and their communities to drive equity actions forward across sectors and systems. Join us for a discussion with leaders from across the country.

This session will explore perspectives on power, and specifically the various ways that power influences, frames or directs public health efforts. We will unpack the many shapes that power can take and the mechanisms through which power reasserts itself following disruptions to maintain the status quo. We will discuss how power affects population health via healthcare decisions and health policies and reflect on the power of community. We will also explore topics such as accountability for those in positions of power, opportunities to address power imbalances in Public Health moving forward and speaking truth to power. 

As we move further into this conversation series, we build on our earlier discussions of listening, leading, and recognizing power. As we transition to summer, we shift our discussions to courage and hope in recovery and regeneration. In this session, we explore opportunities for courage and what courageous action can look like in public health. We will reflect on how public health practitioners can show courage through listening, by disrupting the status quo and in speaking out against systems built on core values inconsistent with health equity. We will discuss bold, brave actions we can take to defend all beings. We will consider the importance of being courageously persistent and resilient when re-organizing and re-structuring systems that influence health.

As we wrap up our conversation series on recovery and regeneration, we come together for a final session on hope. Moving into summer, we turn our attention to making peace with the natural world and reconnecting with one another to explore how doing this can help us seize hope. We reflect on how recent crises have endangered hope and acknowledge the challenges ahead of us. We also consider the opportunities ahead of us – opportunities to regenerate and reinvent. We explore how reconnection with nature will contribute to recovery and “bouncing forward”, rather than bouncing back. We reflect on the resilience of youth and discuss how future generations, with time, space, and hope, can rebuild a society that cares for all beings and prioritizes planetary health.