Traditionally, the housing and health care industries have viewed one another as distinct. This distinction has prohibited us from seeing our broader intersections with economic, social and racial equity—and the solutions.
Op-Ed
Every time a young person who suffers from addiction reaches out for help, we have an incredible and precious opportunity to find the road back to the youth’s full potential. Wasting that opportunity isn’t just a waste of public dollars, it is a matter of life or death.
That is why my organization, the California Society of Addiction Medicine, is sponsoring legislation, Senate Bill 275, to create clear standards for youth substance use disorder prevention, early intervention and treatment.
The people who come into our shelter in Santa Cruz County have frequently been beaten, trafficked and sexually assaulted in Central America. They have come to the United States as a last resort—in order to save their lives.
But a policy change under our current presidential administration threatens the health and well-being of these victims of violence.
As our country faces a gun violence epidemic, I find myself perplexed by the blatant gaps in our prevention systems. California law and the public agree that batterers should not own guns, and yet law enforcement agencies are not equipped to enforce these regulations.
We can minimize the harmful effects of health disparities by designing programs that offer accessible, evidence-based interventions that empower people. A new approach to medicine—that takes into account a person’s way of life, culture and neighborhood—is helping.
If adopted as written, the Farm Bill would result in devastating repercussions for those who are already food insecure in our country.
And exactly who would be affected? Your neighbors. Your children’s teachers. Your colleagues. The barista at your favorite coffee shop. Senior citizens and people with disabilities. Veterans. Maybe even your own family.
With 434,000 children in subsidized child care and preschool in California, improving early-care environments across the state is crucial for our future. As a child-care provider in South Los Angeles, I know I could do more if I had additional resources.
As my generation has grown up, we have had to bear witness to more and more reports of gun violence—like the school shooting Friday in Santa Fe, Texas.
This is an issue so many people stand for, because it comes down to one basic thing: safety.
As a youth advocate, it’s my personal responsibility to help fix forms of injustice where I see them. I will be using my voice, along with other youth to stop gun violence, whether by participating in national walkouts to get Congress aware of our concerns or by badgering our representatives for comprehensive reform. If our representatives disregard us because of our age and supposed lack of knowledge, then we’ll know who to vote out when we turn 18.
My school has its own on campus police that continues to criminalize young black and brown students. We are being over-policed, and our schools are slowing becoming prisons. We cannot arm our teachers as if they are maximum-security prison guards.
Gun violence has taken too many lives and there needs to be a change.