Learn. Connect. Act.

 

Restoring Justice for Health

Click here to see the program for the 11th Annual We Can Do Better Conference (PDF).

We held our 11th Annual We Can Do Better Conference on October 30, 2020 from 9:00am – 2:30pm as an Online event.

 

Se-ah-dom Edmo, Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce & Yakama, is MRG’s Executive Director. She brings deep experience in community organizing for racial and social justice work across the nation. She is co-editor of the Tribal Equity Toolkit 3.0: Tribal Resolutions and Codes for Two Spirit and LGBT Justice in Indian Country and American Indian Identity: Citizenship, Membership & Blood. Prior to joining MRG served as the Sovereignty Program Director at Western States Center where she was the coalition convener of Tribal History: Shared History (Senate Bill 13, 2017) in Oregon – this law established and funded teaching of Indian History and Sovereignty in K – 12 Schools across the state. A hallmark of her career has been fostering relationships and collaborations between tribes and organizations that do social, racial, environmental, and economic justice work across the region. She is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Oregon Recovers and is an ALF Senior Fellow. She lives in Portland with her husband James and their children Siale, Imasees and Miyosiwin, as well as her parents, Ed and Carol Edmo.

 

Se-ah-dom’s ancestors are from Celilo, a fishing village along the Columbia River and one of the oldest known settlements in the West.

 

 

JoAnn Hardesty is a Portland City Commissioner overseeing Portland Fire & Rescue, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, Bureau of Emergency Communications, Fire & Police Disability and Retirement Fund. Committed to building a livable and sustainable city with all Portlanders and for all Portlanders, through transparency, accountability, and opportunity.

 

                                                                                      

 

 

Tim Black is the Operations Coordinator for White Bird Clinic’s CAHOOTS mobile crisis program and has been a crisis intervention worker with the program since 2010. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Eugene’s Community Supported Shelters. Prior to CAHOOTS, Tim has worked in street outreach, case management, and crisis services for runaway and homeless youth in Lane County, as well as wilderness therapy and outdoor education.

 

 

 

 

                             Agenda

 

9:00 – 9:15 am                 Welcome 

Amy Fellows and Travis Stovall, We Can Do Better

9:15 – 9:45 am                Morning Keynote: Restoring Justice for Health WATCH IT HERE
Jo Ann Hardesty, Portland City Commissioner

                                           Introduction: Michael Sorensen, Cedar Hills Hospital

 

9:45 – 10:45 am               Crisis Intervention Panel  WATCH IT HERE

                                            Senator Ron Wyden, opening comments

Tim Black, Operations Coordinator, White Bird Clinic, CAHOOTS

Tremaine Clayton, Firefighter-Paramedic, Portland Fire & Rescue

Kaia Sand, Executive Director, Street Roots

 

10:45 – 11:00 am            Break

 

11:00 am – 12:00 pm     Conversation: Racism’s Impact on Health and Anti-racist Policy WATCH IT HERE

State Representative Janelle Bynum

Leslie Gregory, Founder and Director, Right To Health

                                                       Introduction: Jeremiah Rigsby, CareOregon

 

12:00 – 12:30 pm             Lunch break

 

12:30 – 12:45 pm             Health Equity Policy  WATCH IT HERE

State Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer

 

12:45 – 1:45 pm               Allies for a Healthier Oregon (AHO) Policy Panel WATCH IT HERE

Chris Bouneff, Executive Director, Oregon chapter, National Alliance on Mental Illness

Zeenia Junkeer, Director, Oregon Health Equity Alliance

Kate Suisman, Attorney, Northwest Workers’ Justice Project

Laurie Wimmer, Chair, Oregon Revenue Coalition

Suzanne Hansche, AHO, moderator

 

1:45 – 2:00 pm                 Break

 

2:00 – 2:45 pm                 Closing Keynote: Funding to Advance Social Justice WATCH IT HERE

Se-ah-dom Edmo, Executive Director, McKenzie River Gathering

                                                         Introduction: Mike Franz, PacificSource

 

2:45                                   Closing remarks

Amy Fellows, Executive Director, We Can Do Better

 

 

Do you ever wish the health transformation debate was actually about health? That it was going to positively impact you, and the people you care most about? Our annual conference does just that, brings the focus back to what is most important — improving our health, better experiences when we get care, and doing it at a cost we can afford. We will examine what a good health care system should deliver, a “map” to determine if the path we’re on is moving us towards a better health care system, one that includes affordable and available care, but has a broader goal of improving health.

Our conference brings together critical thinkers in health and health care to identify the barriers to improving health and how we can address them. It delivers pertinent information to help us understand Oregon’s health transformation process, and where the community’s voice is needed to move that process forward.

Our vision – that only by working together can we create a system for all Oregonians that results in better health care and health. During our 2020 Conference we will:

• Present a framework for improving our health care system
• Offer updates on federal and state health policies
• Identify the priority action areas to improve health equity and provide better care
• Highlight innovative, cutting edge programs across Oregon

 

We Can Do Better views health as a product of many factors. Using our website, social media, and community forums, we share creative ways that communities approach health – through affordable and nutritious food, safe biking and pedestrian walkways, housing, equity issues and yes, improving the medical system.

We Can Do Better is not your typical non-profit, and each year we host a not-so-typical conference as illustrated by a comment from a 2013 conference participant, “I usually leave this sort of thing feeling pretty depressed about the hopelessness of it all. On the drive home from this conference, I was full of ideas of things that I could do. That sounds kind of trite when I say it, but I am looking at some things in a whole new way. Now all I need is to take that from thought into action.”

 

To get a flavor of our conference, please see our page about 2019’s event. Contact us if you want to help plan, volunteer the day of or contribute to our scholarship fund so everyone who wants to attend can Learn, Connect and Act.