Advocates for Justice and Education Awarded $303,000 to Address Health Disparities Of Black and Latinx Children and Youth with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs

Washington, D.C. – Advocates for Justice and Education, Inc. (AJE) is pleased to announce a $303,000 grant in support of an ambitious campaign to implement AJE’s “Health Equity Project.” Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the three-year campaign is part of the Community Solutions for Health Equity program led by the national non-profit health equity advocacy organization, Community Catalyst.

This funding will help address health disparities in DC for Black and Latinx children and youth with special needs living in Wards 8, 7 & 1, and advance parent-led advocacy efforts to improve equitable access to health care for their children.

Communities of color are burdened by racist and oppressive systems, from healthcare to education to housing, which significantly undermines people’s physical and mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this all too clear, exposing deep inequities in the U.S. healthcare system rooted in racism that disproportionately harm communities of color and other marginalized people.  In DC, Black and Latinx communities face significant barriers to accessing high-quality, culturally competent health care, and for too long, have not had access to the decision-making table to inform on what matters most to them.

AJE’s DC Health Equity Project is part of the Consumer Solutions for Health Equity (CSHE) program, which has granted over $3.3million to 11 projects across the country to make local healthcare systems more responsive to community needs. By elevating the voices, stories, and priorities of the people who hold the solutions but are too often left out of decisions that affect their health, this project aims to eliminate barriers, address biases and health inequities exasperated by COVID -19.

Over the next three years, AJE will train, support, and provide Black and Latinx families with resources to increase their capacity to engage in systems change by working with healthcare system decision-makers to ensure that their children and families’ health care needs are identified, prioritized, and met. Community partnerships with Black and Latinx communities and healthcare systems will work together to reimagine an equitable system of care with solutions to eliminate racial and health care disparities. The project’s goal is to make local healthcare systems more responsive to the community’s needs by elevating the voices, stories, priorities, and knowledge of families.

“We are honored that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation selected AJE as one of 11 organizations from across the nation to support the elimination of health inequities through the voices of impacted communities and achieving shared decision-making,” said Rochanda Hiligh-Thomas, Executive Director of AJE.  “We are excited and ready to work in partnership with families, health care professionals, community organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure DC families have access to and receive equitable health care – a basic, fundamental human right.”

For more information about AJE’s DC Health Equity Project and the Community Solutions for Health Equity project, click here.

About Advocates for Justice and Education:  Founded in 1996, Advocates for Justice and Education, Inc. (AJE) seeks to empower families, youth, and the community to be effective advocates to ensure that children and youth, particularly those who have special needs, receive access to appropriate education and health services. AJE is the federally designated Parent Training and Information Center and Family-to-Family Health Information Center for the District of Columbia. We fight to eliminate barriers and dismantle inequitable systems that impede families and their children’s access equitable educational and health services.

Contact: Jazmone Wilkerson

Director of Advocacy, Advocates for Justice and Education, Inc.

Jazmone.wilkerson@aje-dc.org | 202-678-8060- ext. 206