You can’t cover D.C. without engaging with health equity: Life expectancy in our city can vary by a decade depending on the ward you live in; Black residents are almost 2.5 times more likely to have heart disease; Ward 8 residents are four times as likely to have diabetes. While Black people made up only half of births in D.C., they accounted for 90 percent of maternal deaths from 2014 to 2018.
But D.C. residents aren’t just experiencing these disparities; they’re acting on them.
We’ve reported on Mamatoto Village, which is improving maternal health outcomes by training community members to be birth workers, and our reporting on Dr. Edwin C. Chapman’s clinic in Northeast D.C. detailed his lifesaving treatment for older Black men — the District residents most vulnerable to opioid overdoses.
We want to find more of these stories, and dive deeper into how health shapes the lives of District residents. To do so, we’re launching a health equity beat at The 51st — a dedicated coverage area to explore the health issues that matter most to you, our readers. Because you’re at the center of what we do, we want to hear from you: What health stories matter most to you? What health issues does your family worry about? What interesting solutions are you seeing community members develop in response to the city’s inequities?
To help launch this beat, I was selected as a fellow at the Georgetown - Howard Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice. This fellowship is covering just over half of the pay for my part-time work at The 51st for one year, but we still need to raise another $30,000 to cover the rest, as well as the cost of hiring freelancers and photographers to help us tell these important stories. If this reporting matters to you, please consider joining as a member or giving a one-time donation to support our health equity coverage.
If you’re interested in giving through a donor-advised fund or foundation, our EIN is 99-3371005. You can email my colleague Maddie Poore with any questions.
We’re grateful to MHHJ and both institutions for their support of The 51st, and excited for the ways this fellowship will expand our networks in the city. I also feel lucky to be collaborating with the other fellows. Their fascinating projects include using quilting to share experiences with hypertension in Ward 7 and 8, a podcast on intergenerational healing, and the use of oral history to improve healthcare delivery for D.C. natives.
Abigail is a co-founder of The 51st and a reporter and editor in Washington D.C. covering inequality, gender, and labor. She's the First Vice President of The National Writers Union.
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