Advocacy groups across the country are calling 2021 a record-breaking year for legislation that seeks to attack the rights of the transgender and nonbinary community. To date, 33 states have introduced more than 100 bills that would limit transgender people’s rights – and primarily impact transgender youth. These bills include efforts to ban participation in youth sports, limit education on LGBTQ issues and restrict gender-affirming health care treatment.

Blue Cross remains committed to serving the transgender and non-binary community. Part of this commitment includes uplifting the work and voices of community leaders who are improving the health and well-being of the transgender and nonbinary community every day.

In a special two-part episode of The State We’re In podcast, Ani Koch, leader of Blue Cross’ Gender Care and Service initiative, sat down with Blue Cross’ Gender Services Consultant Alex Jackson Nelson, Ejay Jack of M Health Fairview, Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd of Children’s Minnesota, Nathalie Crowley of Family Tree Clinic and Ms July 23rd, owner and founder of Goddess Electrolysis.

Advocacy groups across the country are calling 2021 a record-breaking year for legislation that seeks to attack the rights of the transgender and nonbinary community. To date, 33 states have introduced more than 100 bills that would limit transgender people’s rights – and primarily impact transgender youth. These bills include efforts to ban participation in youth sports, limit education on LGBTQ issues and restrict gender-affirming health care treatment.

Blue Cross remains committed to serving the transgender and non-binary community. Part of this commitment includes uplifting the work and voices of community leaders who are improving the health and well-being of the transgender and nonbinary community every day.

In a special two-part episode of The State We’re In podcast, Ani Koch, leader of Blue Cross’ Gender Care and Service initiative, sat down with Blue Cross’ Gender Services Consultant Alex Jackson Nelson, Ejay Jack of M Health Fairview, Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd of Children’s Minnesota, Nathalie Crowley of Family Tree Clinic and Ms July 23rd, owner and founder of Goddess Electrolysis.

On May 25 of this year, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in South Minneapolis. The protests and ensuing unrest shined a local spotlight on the trauma of police brutality that Black people have endured for far too long and of which Black men have been the primary target.

Black men have endured the multigenerational effects of slavery, lynching, family separation, Jim Crow, poverty, mass incarceration and systemic oppression. The relentless threat to Black bodies – especially Black male bodies – takes its toll on Black men’s physical and mental health, leading to higher rates of suicide, disease and homicide. The life expectancy for Black men in America is 71.9 years, while White men, on average, live 76.4 years.

At the same time, the topic of mental illness, mental health and trauma has been taboo in the Black community. Pleasant Radford, Jr., formerly of the Center for Prevention and now Health Equity Officer at UCare, facilitated this barber-shop style discussion with four Black Minnesota men to talk about mental health, racial trauma and the importance of talking about these issues.

Many thanks to Pleasant Radford, Cedrick Frazier, Vernon Rowland, Sam Simmons and Jalen Travis for their contributions to this special two-part episode.

On May 25 of this year, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in South Minneapolis. The protests and ensuing unrest shined a local spotlight on the trauma of police brutality that Black people have endured for far too long and of which Black men have been the primary target.

Black men have endured the multigenerational effects of slavery, lynching, family separation, Jim Crow, poverty, mass incarceration and systemic oppression. The relentless threat to Black bodies – especially Black male bodies – takes its toll on Black men’s physical and mental health, leading to higher rates of suicide, disease and homicide. The life expectancy for Black men in America is 71.9 years, while White men, on average, live 76.4 years.

At the same time, the topic of mental illness, mental health and trauma has been taboo in the Black community. Pleasant Radford, Jr., formerly of the Center for Prevention and now Health Equity Officer at UCare, facilitated this barber-shop style discussion with four Black Minnesota men to talk about mental health, racial trauma and the importance of talking about these issues.

Many thanks to Pleasant Radford, Cedrick Frazier, Vernon Rowland, Sam Simmons and Jalen Travis for their contributions to this special two-part episode.

At the Center for Prevention we support active transportation — biking, walking, and rolling — because we know it leads to better health. Transportation also is what connects us to critical needs like education, jobs, housing, food, and medical care.

A good transportation system gives people the ability to go where they want easily and safely.

In the past weeks and months, we’ve seen the tragic reminders that it’s not just car traffic that make streets unsafe. To advance health equity in transportation we must acknowledge the violence and trauma that Black, Indigenous, and people of color are often exposed to in the streets, and how racism undermines safety.

Improving our transportation system for everyone is one aspect of tackling the racial, economic, and environmental inequities in Minnesota that continue to make the COVID-19 pandemic deadlier for low-income and nonwhite families.

For this episode of the State We’re In Jill Chamberlain, Center for Prevention senior program manager of community health and health equity, hosted a conversation with two advocates who are committed to making the transportation system in Minnesota better for all of us.

We bring you a special episode on declaring structural racism as a public health crisis, in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.

Whether at the hands of police or because of pervasive inequities built into the fabric of our society, Black and brown people are dying at disproportionately high rates compared to white people. Systemic and structural racism in housing, health care, employment and healthy food access is resulting in Latinos and Blacks being three times as likely to be infected with COVID-19 as their white counterparts and twice as likely to die of the virus as white people.

We spoke with three community leaders on why naming structural racism as a public health crisis is crucial and what comes after the acknowledgement.

We bring you another special episode in our series on COVID-19 on growing food and community connections. There is a growing need for healthy foods in Minnesota, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Minnesota is home to sizeable food security disparities. The pandemic has not only exacerbated these gaps, but also shown how food insecurity can be correlated with stress, anxiety, and fear.

This episode focuses on some of our partners— farmers, gardeners and community leaders —who improve our local food system, build strong communities, and share their knowledge about growing food.

We bring you a special episode on coping and mental health in the times of COVID-19. This pandemic is forcing us to change our lives in ways we never imagined. Supporting and caring for one another is more important than ever, and we’re doing it in new ways.

Everyone reacts to stressful situations differently. We had the opportunity to get some advice from community leaders, teachers, and behavioral health professionals about strategies for coping and taking care of each other during this time.

As the vaping epidemic continues in Minnesota, we bring you a preview of our upcoming video documentary: stories from the people on the front lines of this fight against big tobacco.

The 2019 Minnesota Student Survey found more than a quarter of Minnesota 11th-graders and 11 percent of 8th-graders used an e-cigarette in the past month. From 2016-2019, the 8th-grade vaping rate nearly doubled.

The commercial tobacco industry uses flavors to attract these kids. Two thirds of current high-school tobacco users in Minnesota reported using a flavored product.

The deliberate marketing tactics used by the tobacco industry have made vaping popular among youth. The Minnesota Student Survey also found that Eighty-eight percent of Minnesota high-school students are exposed to e-cigarette ads. Investigations have revealed e-cigarette maker JUUL targeted kids as young as eight with marketing including a summer camp, school programs and social media influencers. The state of Minnesota has sued JUUL Labs for illegally advertising to youth and engaging in deceptive practices.

Flavored tobacco products are driving the youth nicotine epidemic, which has erased nearly two decades of progress to reduce youth tobacco use. The alarming rise of youth vaping goes hand-in-hand with the insidious impact of predatory marketing the commercial tobacco industry has targeted at marginalized communities – including African Americans, American Indians, and LGBTQ people.

In the podcast we’ll hear from  Laura Smith,  Senior Public Affairs Manager at ClearWay Minnesota.

Will Gitler and Claire Hering share their personal experiences with vaping. These experiences led them to join local action and advocacy work to reverse this epidemic and protect the health of all Minnesotans.

Watch for more on vaping epidemic in our upcoming documentary, where we continue with these conversations. We’ll also explore how vaping is impacting Native American youth from the Lower Sioux Indian Community and how tribal leaders are addressing the problem. We’ll learn more about the serious health impacts of vaping from Dr. Brook Moore, a pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.

This episode focuses on the great work of Healthy Together Willmar, and their mission to help create a future where all members of the Willmar, MN community have access to the resources and opportunities needed to achieve their best possible health.

In Willmar, achieving good health is met with considerable barriers, which are often experienced most by an increasingly diverse and aging population. To address some of these barriers, the Healthy Together Willmar initiative launched the Idea Fund, creating an opportunity for community members to submit ideas to affect change. 

Now in its second round of funding, more than $264,000 was awarded to community groups in Willmar to offer support and solutions related to physical, mental and behavioral health, community connections, access to dental care, the availability of culturally based childcare and more.

The Idea Fund process kicked off in the fall of 2018, with residents attending a “progressive dinner,” community meals at homes throughout Willmar, where they engaged in conversations about how to address the community’s barriers to health. From there, ideas were submitted to the Willmar Community Table, which is comprised of diverse residents who have firsthand experience facing barriers to health.

Find more information about Healthy Together Willmar and the idea fund here.