The Pursuit of Justice: From Inequity to Integrity

Join a conversation with physician Naheed Dosani and social worker Michael A. Light as they reflect on their experiences witnessing profound injustice for those facing economic inequality, housing insecurity and end of life. They will share advice on strategies to cope with despair and opportunities to become better allies for some of the most vulnerable populations.

Since the 1980s, homelessness continues to be on the rise due to many contributing factors: the high cost of living, systemic poverty, healthcare access, and more. And those who are unhoused experience intersecting forms of oppression and discrimination as people of color, LGBTQ+, veterans, survivors of sexual and physical abuse, immigrants, formerly incarcerated, individuals with disabilities, those experiencing mental illness, and those struggling with addiction. Most minority groups, especially Black and Indigenous people, experience homelessness at higher rates than whites, largely due to long-standing historical and structural racism.

What small steps can we take to address homelessness, racism, xenophobia, and violence against the most marginalized? Let’s gather to acknowledge the challenges and find opportunities to be of service.

Following their discussion, we invite you to join small peer-led breakout room sessions guided by the following prompts:

• If you have experienced struggle as an advocate – either as a family caregiver or as a professional – can you identify any new pathways or insights to experience more peace?
• Is there an action - even a small, sweet step - to navigate the grief, heartache, injustice, or discrimination you may be experiencing directly or vicariously?

Dr. Naheed Dosani, MSC, MD, CCFP(PC), BSc

As a palliative care physician and health justice activist, Dr. Naheed Dosani is dedicated to advancing equitable access to healthcare for people experiencing structural vulnerabilities like poverty and homelessness. These efforts include founding & leading the Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH) Program at the Inner City Health Associates in downtown Toronto, serving as the Medical Director of Kensington Hospice at Kensington Health, Health Equity Lead at Kensington Health, a Health Equity Expert Advisor at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and as a palliative care physician at St. Michael’s Hospital at Unity Health Toronto. Dr. Dosani shares his passion for palliative care and health equity with learners as an Assistant Professor with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research interests include advancing access to equity-oriented palliative care for structurally vulnerable populations & culturally diverse communities. Dr. Dosani has received many prestigious honors for his trailblazing work. These awards include the Meritorious Service Cross for Humanitarianism from Canada’s Governor General in 2018, a humanitarian award from the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians in May 2019 and the Early Career Leader award from the Canadian Medical Association in 2020. Most recently, Dr. Dosani received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from Ontario Tech University in 2022.

Michael A. Light, MSW, MPH, LICSW, APHSW-C

Michael is the social worker with the Homeless Palliative Care outreach team at Harborview Medical Center and Co-Director of the Palliative Care Training Center at the University of Washington (UW). He teaches in the UW School of Social Work and is Senior Faculty with VitalTalk. Michael engages in research and speaks nationally on topics intersecting homelessness, serious illness, patient-centered communication, and psychosocial care. Previous work includes clinical practice in emergency medicine, acute psychiatric care, and pediatrics and development support for medical social work and palliative care services in Cambodia. Michael earned an MSW and MPH in Global Health from UW.

About Reimagine and the Series "The Pursuit of Justice: From Inequity to Integrity”

Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and–at our own pace– actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org

Building a more just and equitable society is an act of service and an act of love. In our communities and across the globe, taking steps to end violence, discrimination, poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, healthcare disparities, and other injustices not only can help repair a broken world, but can also help reduce despair, improve our wellbeing, and appreciate the humanity that connects all of us.

In this three-part series, palliative care providers, spiritual leaders, writers, filmmakers, and activists will share stories of grief and loss, and how their struggles with systemic and structural inequities have transformed their personal and professional lives. Register now and reimagine a world in which we all take steps to restore wholeness and set things right.

“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.” ~ Francis Weller, “The Wild Edge of Sorrow”

“Embodied grief” is a body-based transformative methodology and part of the Radical Loss framework under development by Malkia Devich Cyril. Embodied grief is rooted in the principles and practices of the generative somatics for social justice framework innovated by Staci K Haines, emergent strategy methods developed by adrienne maree brown, data learned about the grieving brain, buddhist and ancestral practices, and the approaches of community organizing and cultural strategy for social change.

Unprocessed grief gets stored in the body and can cause physical and psychic harm, focusing our nervous systems on survival and making connection and the full range of emotions difficult to access. Embodied grief is rooted in the idea that grief is a natural response to loss, and loss is a natural part of the cycle of change. But, inequality and trauma make loss disproportionate and disrupt the essential grieving process. Grief is a necessary element of change. For us to change as individuals and as communities and nations, we must remove barriers to our grief and practice grief in new ways.

In this time of mass loss, healing-centered grief activist and poet Malkia Devich Cyril will introduce the Reimagine community to somatic-based practices of embodied and accompanied grief that can support healing centered action during this 90-minute workshop. Together, participants will grow their awareness of grief in the body, practice centering in grief, generate grief commitments, and explore embodied approaches to finding meaning and joy.

Malkia Devich Cyril is a transformative grief worker and movement strategist as well as a writer, public speaker and award winning activist on issues of collective grief, Black liberation, and narrative power. As the founding and former director of the Youth Media Council and Media Justice, Malkia spearheaded national grassroots efforts for abolition and access in a digital age, and galvanized communities of color for an open Internet and media accountability. After two decades of media justice leadership, and in an era of devastating mass loss, Devich-Cyril is currently incubating their Radical Loss Project at Mia Birdsong’s culture change lab, Next River. Malkia is a 2022 - 2024 Leading Edge Fellow, Founder-in-Residence at MediaJustice, and Strategist in Residence at Narrative Initiative currently writing a book on the radical possibilities of Black grief. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, SF Chronicle

@culturejedi

About Reimagine and the Series "The Pursuit of Justice: From Inequity to Integrity”

Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and–at our own pace– actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org

Building a more just and equitable society is an act of service and an act of love. In our communities and across the globe, taking steps to end violence, discrimination, poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, healthcare disparities, and other injustices not only can help repair a broken world, but can also help reduce despair, improve our wellbeing, and appreciate the humanity that connects all of us.

In this three-part series, palliative care providers, spiritual leaders, writers, filmmakers, and activists will share stories of grief and loss, and how their struggles with systemic and structural inequities have transformed their personal and professional lives. Register now and reimagine a world in which we all take steps to restore wholeness and set things right.

Betty Clark, MDiv and her mentee, Jessica Zitter, MD, share notes from the medical field in combating inequities. Chaplain Clark and Dr. Zitter have worked together for over a decade at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California. They are united in transforming how healthcare is delivered within their community and across the United States. Pastor Corey L. Kennard, Reimagine Board Chair, pastor, and health care activist, will guide the discussion. The program features a sneak peak of Dr. Zitter’s documentary film-in-progress The Chaplain of Oakland, the story of the once adversarial, now symbiotic relationship between two charismatic and powerful women: a deeply community-rooted Black chaplain and her protege, a fiery Jewish doctor. From within the walls of Oakland California’s Highland Hospital, these committed allies work to transform how Black people die in America.

Chaplain Betty Clark has a Master of Divinity degree from the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley California. She has worked as a Hospice Chaplain for 16 years and a Palliative Care Chaplain at Alameda Health system for 12 years. She has certificates in Palliative Care Chaplaincy, Managing Spiritual Care and Grief Counseling. Chaplain Clark is the founder of the Church Without Walls where she has partnered with Rev. Eugene Williams for 25 years. She is the founder of The East Bay Community End of Life Coalition. Chaplain Clark is the first woman to be the president of The Saint Lukes Society. She is currently the President of the Board of the ARC of the East Bay. She loves her work with the patients and staff at Alameda Health System. She believes that we are all wounded healers traveling this path together that leads to wholeness. That no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. Chaplain Clark feels that she receives as much as she gives.

Jessica Zitter, MD, MPH is a physician, documentary filmmaker, and writer working to improve how we die in America. Dr. Zitter was part of the team that created the Oscar and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary, Extremis (2017), which featured her work in the ICU. After founding her own production company, Reel Medicine Media, she went on to create the award-winning documentary, Caregiver: A Love Story (2020), which examines the national crisis of family caregiver burden. Dr. Zitter’s book, Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017), describes her evolution from being a physician focused on medical protocols to one focused on the human being. She was recently named one of Next Avenue’s 2021 “Influencers in Aging.” Dr. Zitter practices both Critical Care and Palliative Care at Highland Hospital, the public hospital in Oakland, California.

reelmedicinemedia.org

@jessicazitter

thechaplainofoakland.com

Corey L. Kennard is Pastor of Amplify Christian Church, healthcare activist, spiritual life coach, and serves as Board Chair at Reimagine. Corey has been involved in the healthcare field for over 20 years with over a decade of experience in the areas of palliative care and hospice. His holistic approach serves as the foundation for his desire to see all human beings treated with dignity, honor, and respect in all facets of life. He currently seeks to enhance the patient and family experience in healthcare settings.

Corey was instrumental in creating a teaching module for understanding spirituality at the end of life for African-Americans for Duke University's Institute on Care at the End Of Life (ICEOL) national training program. Corey served as a National Advisory Board Member for The Hospice Foundation of America, and was a co-director of a Community Faith "Advance Care Planning'' Project for the University of Virginia. He was the recipient of the Michigan Chronicle's Men of Excellence Award as being one of the Top 50 Most Influential African-American Men in the Metropolitan Detroit Region.

Corey is the author of Goliath Must Fall and Hamburgers and a Holy Man. You can connect with Corey on Twitter, and Instagram.

https://coreylkennard.com/

About Reimagine and the Series "The Pursuit of Justice: From Inequity to Integrity”

Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and–at our own pace– actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org

Building a more just and equitable society is an act of service and an act of love. In our communities and across the globe, taking steps to end violence, discrimination, poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, healthcare disparities, and other injustices not only can help repair a broken world, but can also help reduce despair, improve our wellbeing, and appreciate the humanity that connects all of us.

In this three-part series, palliative care providers, spiritual leaders, writers, filmmakers, and activists will share stories of grief and loss, and how their struggles with systemic and structural inequities have transformed their personal and professional lives. Register now and reimagine a world in which we all take steps to restore wholeness and set things right.