As we approach Thanksgiving, most people I know who are working in public health in the U.S. are trying to take a bit of a breather from the onslaught of bad news, enjoy some good food, and take time to think about what we’re grateful for, even though that might be a bit harder this year than in years past.
For my part, I’m grateful that despite how panicked I felt earlier this year, my consulting company is still intact. My family is healthy and we’re still on pretty solid ground.
I’m also very aware that this isn’t true for everyone, and a lot of people are especially experiencing hard times during the holidays. While I try to do what I can to donate to important causes or take other steps to care for my neighbors year-round, I always try to step it up a little during the holiday season.
In case you’re looking for some ideas for new ideas for places where your donation could go a long way toward making a real difference, I thought I’d share a few of the places I’m donating to this year. (All these options are tax-deductible, if that’s important to you.) I invite you to join me, or donate what you can afford to another place of your choosing!
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Support, recognize, and amplify the contributions of LGBTQ+ students, activists, educators, and community leaders in the field of public health through the Kevin Roe Legacy Fund. This has been a very tough year to be LGBTQ+, and especially trans or non-binary—this is one way to help. This fund is especially important to me because Kevin Roe was my friend, and he died unexpectedly in May of this year from a massive heart attack. He was a public health professor at San Jose State University and a tireless champion of the health and empowerment of queer people. It had been his dream to create a scholarship fund to support LGBTQ+ students studying public health or related fields at SJSU, demonstrating leadership potential and commitment to the values Kevin lived by. None of us expected to support that dream without him, but his family, friends, and colleagues have been determined to launch this fund to honor his memory. If this cause speaks to you, we’d love to have you as an inaugural donor to help get it off the ground.
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Assist a hard-working Haitian family in Connecticut in their efforts to open a small health clinic in Haiti, through a donation to the Diabetes and Hypertension Relief Center, or DHRC. In a year when U.S. foreign aid has been decimated, it’s a tough time to be fundraising for health relief in a foreign country. This one is meaningful to me because my mom is a retired nurse, and in 2019 went with this family to Haiti with other nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and students to provide free healthcare as volunteers. In one week, they served over 1,500 men, women, children, and infants, most of whom had walked miles to attend the pop-up clinic. After 4 years of organizing this pop-up clinic each summer, the Dufort family knew they needed to find a more sustainable solution. Their family donated the land and is working to build a permanent clinic in the town, and your donation would make a huge difference to help make this dream a reality.
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Give back to local Indigenous tribes in acknowledgement of the ways you benefit from living on stolen land, by paying a voluntary land tax. Indigenous people continue to face some of the worst health inequities of any group in the U.S., thanks to a long legacy of genocide and oppression. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area like I do, there are a few options. Those of us in the East Bay can pay Shuumi Land Tax. Shuumi means “gift” in Chochenyo, the native language of the Lisjan Ohlone people from this region. Your Shuumi land tax benefits the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and their rematriation work, facilitating the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. This includes caring for land, cultivating urban gardens, cultural regeneration work, urban emergency response strategies, engaging in public education and advocacy, and nurturing Indigenous resilience. If you live in San Francisco or the peninsula, you can pay Yunakin Land Tax (Yunakin means “village” in Ramaytush, the native language of that region). If you’re outside the Bay Area, there may be other land tax options, or you can reach out to a local tribe and ask what kinds of support would be most beneficial to them.
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Contribute to an organization looking to advance health equity by fostering bold, cutting-edge ideas by donating to Springboard HealthLab. I think it goes without saying to anyone reading this Substack that this has been a very tough year for organizations focused on improving health equity. Springboard HealthLab is a non-profit close to my heart because I co-founded it in 2021 with the current executive director Jen Hecht, and I’m still the Board Chair. Springboard HealthLab is an incubator for big ideas that aim to improve health equity across communities. It supports cutting-edge public health projects that need help to get off the ground or to grow, and then helps them find a permanent home. If you want to support an organization that isn’t afraid to take risks in a time when the government is trying to suppress innovative equity-focused projects, then here’s a great way to do it.
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Show your support to the former employees of the CDC who were fired as part of the government’s efforts dismantle this federal public health agency by donating to the mutual aid program of Fired But Fighting. I wrote about this one earlier—there are lots of ways this organization is helping the civil servants who were tossed aside by Trump and RFK Jr. and are now struggling to make ends meet through the holidays.
Donating money isn’t the only way you can help this holiday season. In a time when kindness feels hard to come by, a little kindness can go a long way to showing our neighbors we care. Here are just a few options:
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Check in on people who may be isolated. A simple visit, phone call, or text to an elderly neighbor, someone living alone, or a new parent can make a huge difference. Social connection is a health intervention.
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Practice “micro-kindness” in public spaces. Things like holding a door, letting someone go ahead in line, complimenting someone’s clothing or hairstyle—these tiny interactions take almost no effort and can really put a smile on someone’s face. This adds up in terms of community health.
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Walk with someone for exercise or company. Walking is free, improves mental and physical health, and helps friends or neighbors feel cared for.
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Share skills or offer help instead of money. There’s so much you might be able to offer, from helping someone carry groceries to shoveling snow, raking leaves, or offering someone a ride to an appointment. You might know how to fix a leaky faucet and save someone the expense of a high water bill, or a plumber. Maybe you know how to repair someone’s clothing, or can help a student with their math homework so their parent doesn’t have to stress about it. If someone you know is sick or working long hours, you could offer to walk their dog, or cook a little extra when you make dinner, and bring some by.
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Let someone know you’re thinking about them. A card slipped under a door or a handwritten note arriving in the mailbox can bring surprising warmth. It’s inexpensive but deeply personal. Or sometimes it’s as simple as saying “How are you doing, really?” instead of blowing past a greeting. You never know whether your genuine expression of caring might open a door for someone who needs it.
It doesn’t matter what you do this holiday season—in a time when empathy and caring appears to be in short supply, any action you take will matter. Public health isn’t just about vaccines and education campaigns. All of us will be better off if we stick together and do what we can to help the others in our community.
What other ideas do you have that I didn’t mention? Please add comments with your suggestions, so others can take advantage of those options, too!