Dear friends,

A theme that has surfaced in many of my conversations with health equity colleagues these days is moral injury: the trauma that arises when people face betrayal that violates their conscience or threatens their core values, particularly by federal leaders and institutions. The reasons are many: reckless cuts to critical services at the Department of Health and Human Services, USAID, and other agencies. Psychological warfare inflicted on federal workers and immigrants. People being ejected from the country for speaking their values, or for seemingly no reason at all. The social safety net in tatters. It can feel unbearable.

And yet we know that at least one response to moral injury exists. If the betrayal violates our values, then in response we must defend our values. We have to exercise moral courage. Many of us are already doing this, through bold actions and difficult decisions, but too few of us are doing it together.

“Exercising courage” is the right term, because courage takes practice. Once, as I confided to a friend my disappointment in myself for not speaking up against an injustice, she gently prompted, “What do you wish you had said? Try it on me.” Her offer ensured that the next time, I would have practiced, and it would make speaking up easier.

That idea is why we have been building an initiative through which colleagues across the country can convene, learn, practice, organize, and collaborate together to support health equity. Today, we are giving you a sneak peek at the Health Equity Policy Hub—a gathering place to inform and equip health professionals with tools to manage risks to institutions and communities, and with resources to take local and institutional action.

The Hub has two parts: a policy tracker and a mobilization network. The mobilization network is designed to lower the barrier of entry to organizing. It’s a place to operationalize courage and collaboration, where you can create local groups, ask friends and colleagues to join, and initiate actions like events and petitions. We support all new organizers and will convene monthly virtual spaces to offer training on organizing for action and provide peer support with those agitating for action in their institutions and communities. We encourage you to try it out. And please reach out to us if you are interested in partnering or sponsoring.

It’s critical to unite individual mettle into organized action—because not only does courage take practice, but courage is contagious. And its contagion amplifies its power.

I am inspired by many people who are practicing courage together now to influence institutions. For example, leaders at the Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) chose to release its Anti-Racism Recommendations for Social Care Research, developed over three years, rather than withhold them and accept censorship. More than 1,400 Columbia University alumni (and counting) signed a letter of protest to the Board of Trustees when the university acceded to White House demands that curtail its academic freedom. And numerous organizational leaders in states like Louisiana, Michigan, and Texas, including our clients and partners, are proving that they can protect and advance health equity despite hostile environments, finding ways to unite and stand larger together rather than cutting themselves too small.

Our work building The Hub has demonstrated another way to reclaim institutional power by working together. Through a kind of organizational-level mutual aid network, we have found that many hands make light work. The in-kind and volunteer support of nearly two dozen people (and offers of support from hundreds more) helped The Hub launch. And its work is just beginning.

The extreme events of the past three months should prompt us to reconsider the power we concede to the institution—be that the federal government or our workplaces—when we don’t use our collective power to shape it. When our instinct is to ask, “How could this institution betray us?” that’s our cue to probe, “Are we actualizing our full power as active members of this institution?”

And when the way to do that looks daunting, ask yourself: “How can I practice courage today?” I’m willing to bet you’ll find an answer, in yourself and in those around you. And the more we practice together, the easier it will become and the stronger we will make each other.

With love,

Sadena Thevarajah, JD