Happy Holidays, A Global New Years Event, and Farewell to Megan Joseph

This has been such an incredible year at BARHII!

This holiday season, we are particularly thankful for our new relationship with Rise Together. In August, we announced that Rise Together was joining BARHII as our Economic Opportunity Initiative. Economic justice is a crucial health equity issue, and our merger connects the power of public health with the power of Rise Together to improve health equity and end poverty.

Starting in the new year, we will host joint meetings of our memberships to maximize the power of public health and the Rise Together network.

• On Jan 10th, we invite all BARHII General Membership and Power of 9 members to join us in a strategy session with Dr. Monica Sharma, former Director of Leadership and Capacity Development for the United Nations. Dr. Sharma will keynote our policy strategy session, before we break into teams to co-create our 2020 policy efforts, focused on housing, early childhood, climate, and Fair Chance employment.

• On April 2nd, we will host the BARHII-Rise Together Opportunity Summit. The Summit is the region’s largest and most powerful cross-sector convening on ending poverty, building on previous Summits, this year’s Summit theme, Building Power for Equity, will connect community and public health on our core issues of housing affordability, early childhood, climate change, and Fair Chance employment.

• BARHII and Rise Together members (and their networks) are invited to join the 2019 BARHII-Rise Together Leadership for Equity and Opportunity (LEO) cohort that kicks off in Contra Costa County in February. The program is open to anyone in the Bay Area, and thanks to generous donations, the tuition fee is discounted for Contra Costa residents and system leaders.

As the second phase of the merger, the multi-talented Megan Joseph is leaving Rise Together to scale her social impact firm, Impact Launch. Impact Launch supports individuals, organizations and institutions in advancing their capacity to design, navigate and lead change. In partnership with several experienced social impact leaders and practitioners, she will expand Leadership for Equity and Opportunity (LEO) nationally and support leaders and initiatives to design and implement equitable and sustainable social change. You can reach her at megan@impactlaunch.org.

Megan leaves Rise Together strong, having built a phenomenal network of partners committed to ending poverty. In addition to the LEO program, Megan also launched other essential programs that create a launch pad for change, including the Opportunity Summit, Advocacy Day, and Power of 9. BARHII is excited to continue these important initiatives, and we look forward to remaining connected to the important work of Impact Launch.

As we come to the end of the year and the decade, we look forward to a new decade of powerful work at the intersections of health equity and economic opportunity!