Ensuring access to safe, stable, affordable housing involves both downstream interventions when housing is threatened and upstream action to improve laws & policies and provide early legal support. Progress relies on diverse systems harnessing their expertise and resources for their communities.
In 2022, Kaiser Permanente launched the Health, Housing, and Justice: Medical-Legal Partnership Initiative, partnering with local legal aid agencies in six Kaiser Permanente regions (Denver, CO, Los Angeles, Solano, and Sacramento, CA, Baltimore, MD, and Portland, OR) to integrate housing-focused legal services into care for patients and build capacity of the broader community-based legal aid ecosystem. Over two years, teams addressed diverse housing issues for patients, trained nearly 500 Kaiser Permanente staff on topics like eviction risk and affordable housing, and conducted extensive project implementation and outcomes evaluation.
Join Kaiser Permanente, HealthBegins, and the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership for a 90-minute webinar highlighting the transformative impact of medical-legal partnerships on housing. Learn about effective upstream legal interventions, how access to legal assistance can improve health and housing stability, and why healthcare teams integrate legal aid expertise into their patient care efforts. Gain insights on how organizations can enhance collaboration to improve lives and communities.
Speakers:
- Alejandra Cabrera, Senior Program Manager, HealthBegins
- Marisa Conner, Community Health Consultant, Kaiser Permanente
- Vanessa Davis, Director, Medicaid, Kaiser Permanente
- Ronald Flagg, President, Legal Services Corp
- Bethany Hamilton, Director, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
- Kate Marple, Principal Consultant, Who Tells the Story?
- Pam Schwartz, Executive Director of the Office of Community Health, Kaiser Permanente
- Shane Mueller, Research Project Manager, PiER Center, Kaiser Permanente Colorado
- Lynnette Namba, Senior Community Health Specialist, Kaiser Permanente Colorado
- Gerson Sorto, Supervising Attorney, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
- Michelle Villavicencio, Medi-Cal Social Worker, Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Webinar Objectives:
By the end of the webinar, attendees will be able to:
- Empower existing and emerging medical-legal partnerships to adopt Health, Housing and Justice tools and resources in their own upstream eviction prevention practice;
- Inspire allies and stakeholders in health, public health, housing justice, and law to incorporate Health, Housing, and Justice insights and principles in their health equity and community strategies; and
- Challenge leaders across the health, public health, housing justice, and law sectors to strengthen the continuum of care for people experiencing housing instability in our communities.
Featured Content
Staff Spotlight: Erica Jones, Following Her Path and Passion to Help People
“I wish people would try to advocate for themselves more, because I feel like there's this power struggle and people don't feel like they can.”
Staff Spotlight: Kyron Pierce, The Eagle Scout with a Passion For Helping People Lead Healthy Lives
“[Health equity] is very hard work and it might be some years for us to see the fruits of our labor, but it'll be worth it when you do produce it.”
Staff Spotlight: Alejandra Cabrera, Perfectly Imperfect Artist and Health Equity Advocate
When I work with people and communities, I always think back to this sense of not belonging and it drives me to continue to do the heart-work we need to do to advance health equity.