A collage of photographs of African American families and children, all smiling for the camera.

Why this work matters to our network

The social and racial injustices that we witnessed and experienced in 2020 as well as the global Covid-19 pandemic brought to light the systemic racism and health disparities that have existed in this country since the birth of slavery, through the Jim Crow era into today’s 21st century.

For most people this was an awakening, but for Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIOPIC) sadly this was not breaking news.

The shape of a tree formed from words such as systemic racism, discrimination, racial bias, prejudice

As we begin the work of dismantling racism, to stay grounded on CYSHCN and the families that we serve we have to address issues and barriers around health disparities and racial inequities. The following document will briefly examine that and offer steps that we can incorporate in the work that we do in support of families.

According to Annals of Family Medicine: The pandemic has only amplified that Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and immigrant communities are solidly on the wrong side of the disparity statistics.

Black Americans assume the greatest mortality rate from COVID-19 at 2.4 times that of White Americans.

Latinx people have the greatest rates of unemployment accounting for 57% of jobs lost in March and April of this year.

Navajo Nation has the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the United States.

COVID-19 is colorblind; however, the factors that lead to poor outcomes such as inequities in education, insurance status, and access to health care are not. People marched in the streets because of the murders of Black men and women, while marching through the same neighborhoods where anti-Black racism created the risk factors which fueled the flames that contributed to the rampant spread of the virus.

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Our Vision

With families at the center of health care, all children and youth reach their full potential and health disparities are eliminated.

Our Mission

Family Voices is a national organization and grassroots network of families and friends of children and youth with special health care needs and disabilities that promotes partnership with families—including those of cultural, linguistic and geographic diversity—in order to improve health care services and policies for children.

In honor of