Think Tank Investigates the Environmental Conditions Surrounding Health ...( DETROIT Dec. 2 -- Today a group of ...),Health

DETROIT, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Today a group of health professionals, community-based organizations, elected officials and other community leaders from more than a dozen states toured neighborhoods in Detroit/Wayne County to solidify participants' understanding of how the county's history, culture and economic successes and challenges play a role in determining health status. The tour is part of the opening session of a three-day discussion to consider how to reduce health disparities that persist for African Americans and other racial and ethnic populations.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a leading Washington, DC-based think tank, which focuses on issues affecting African Americans, is sponsoring the meeting at the Hotel St. Regis in Detroit this week with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Featured presenters include a panel of race relations experts: Dr. Camara P. Jones, Research Director on the Social Determinants of Health at the National Center on Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an expert on measuring racism and investigating the structural causes of health inequities; Jeannette Pai-Espinosa, President of The National Crittenton Foundation, an expert on increasing racial and ethnic diversity in communities, and creator of the campaign framework for Facing Race: We're All in This Together, an initiative of The Saint Paul Foundation; and Dr. Allan G. Johnson, sociologist and noted author on issues of privilege, oppression and social inequality. Visions, Inc., a national firm specializing in race relations, is facilitating the three-day session designed to assist the participants in understanding and reducing structural racism.

The "Place Matters" Initiative, a national project of the Joint Center Health Policy Institute (HPI), is designed to improve the health of participating communities by addr
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