What some families committed to healthier communities really want.
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“. . . Legal information and rights education [is] an important factor in creating healthy communities. . . . These resources can save families from being illegally separated, evicted, jailed or even deported.”
Part 3 of 3 in our Rights, Resources & the Next Generation blog interview series, this new blog features insights from Dounia Belmir and Erin Connors, each a parent-leader with Smart from the Start. Smart is one of MLPB’s three partner communities invested in Building Legal Problem-Solving in the Early Childhood Sector, a planning process made possible with support from The JPB Foundation.
Thank you so much, Dounia and Erin, for sharing your critical perspectives!
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2022 Virtual Social Work Symposium
Strengthening the Social Care Toolbox With Legal Education
Over the past two years, new evidence bolstering the link between rights education and quality of care has been generated through the Housing Prescriptions as Health Care pilot and the DULCE (Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone) national learning network.
On April 29, join us and key collaborators at the Symposium to explore how legal information and rights education is animating care redesign in communities across the country. This panel will feature:
- Kate Gannon, Law & Policy Consultant – MLPB
- Azieb Ermias, Senior Associate and Project Director for DULCE – Center for the Study of Social Policy
- Allison Bovell-Ammon, Director of Policy Strategy – Children’s HealthWatch at Boston Medical Center
Thank you for hosting this important conversation, NASW-MA! Registration details are available here.

Designed for teams committed to human-centered social care, MLPB’s Digital Digest distills key law and policy updates across many domains of health-related social need that impact individuals, families, and communities.
While April is around the corner, winter is not quite over for New Englanders!
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In Massachusetts, the annual moratorium protecting eligible customers from utility terminations ends on March 31, 2022. Limited utility assistance remains available.
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In Rhode Island, the moratorium expires on April 15, 2022, although it is not unusual to see an extension through May 1, 2022 if the weather is particularly cold.
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COVID-19, Health-Related Social Needs, & Structural Drivers of Health
- Pandemic-Driven Health Policies To Address Social Needs And Health Equity (Health Affairs, Mar. 10, 2022)
- The Pandemic Showed Why Social And Structural Determinants Of Health Matter. Now It’s Time For Policymakers To Act (Brookings, Feb. 18, 2022)
Disparities, Inequity & Care (Re)Design
- Financing Approaches To Social Prescribing Programs In England And The United States (The Milbank Quarterly, Mar. 28, 2022)
- Washington, D.C.’s State-Based Marketplace Is Addressing Health Disparities And Systemic Racism In Health Care (Health Affairs Forefront, Mar. 17, 2022)
- The Equity Issue With Advance Care Planning Cost Sharing (Health Affairs Forefront, Mar. 16, 2022)
- Voting And Civic Engagement Rights Are Eroding: What Does It Mean For Health And Equity (Health Affairs Forefront, Mar. 9, 2022)
- HHS Issues Guidance To Help Protect Transgender Youth (Health Affairs Forefront, Mar. 7, 2022)
- CMS Innovation Center Launches New Initiative To Advance Health Equity (Health Affairs Forefront, Mar. 3, 2022)
- Reductions In Hospitalizations Among Children Referred To A Primary Care-Based Medical-Legal Partnership (Health Affairs, Mar. 2022) subscription required
Early Education & Care
- State-Level Social And Economic Policies And Their Association With Perinatal And Infant Outcomes (The Milbank Quarterly, Mar. 2022)
Immigration Status & Health
- Misusing Public Health As A Pretext To End Asylum — Title 42 (The New England Journal of Medicine, Mar. 23, 2022) subscription required
- Coverage And Framing Of Immigration Policy In US Newspapers (The Milbank Quarterly, Mar. 2022)
Measuring What Matters
- A Typology For Health Equity Measures (Health Affairs Forefront, Mar. 21, 2022)
- Measuring The Trustworthiness Of Health Care Organizations And Systems (The Milbank Quarterly, Mar. 15, 2022)
- Patients’ Perspectives On Trust And Trustworthiness Of Health Care Organizations (The Milbank Quarterly, Mar. 15, 2022)
Nondiscrimination in the 21st Century
- Why Everyone Should Care About The CROWN Act (Washingtonian, Mar. 21, 2022)
- Mass. Lawmakers Are Moving To Make Hair Discrimination Illegal (The Boston Globe, Mar. 16, 2022)
- New Report Examines Impact Of Medical Debt On Black Families (National Consumer Law Center, Mar. 14, 2022)
Transportation & Health
- Evaluating A Nonemergency Medical Transportation Benefit For Accountable Care Organization Members (Health Affairs, Mar. 2022) Subscription required
Utilities & Digital Equity
- Digital Inclusion As Health Care — Supporting Health Care Equity With Digital-Infrastructure Initiatives (The New England Journal Of Medicine, Mar. 24, 2022)