A posterpromotes the
upcoming
roundtable
discussion on
healthcare and
social problems
in Athens.
(Photos/Courtney Holbrook)
Jan Levinson, assistant outreach
archivist at the
Richard B. Russell
Library for Political
Research and Studies,
prepares for the next
meeting.
By Courtney Holbrook
ATHENS, Ga—The Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia will present “What Can We Do?,” a follow-up to its “Unnatural Causes” series on June 7 from 3 to 5 pm at the Athens Regional Library.
“Unnatural Causes” is a 7-part film and lectures series. It discusses connections between health and external forces – poverty, race, status and location.
“It focuses on the social determinants of health and health inequality in the U.S.,” said Jan Levinson, assistant outreach archivist at the Russell Library. “Throughout the series, it becomes obvious that how you live impacts how healthy you are in America.”
The series quickly became more popular than expected.
Every Sunday, Athens’ residents filed into the library and watched part of the documentary. Guest speakers followed each film, including such notables as Dr. Camara Jones, Research Director on Social Determinants of Health and Equity at the Centers for Disease Control.
“When it was over, people wanted to know how they could help,” Levinson said. “We scheduled this other lecture for Athenians who want to volunteer in their community for social change.”
According to Levinson, this upcoming meeting will teach practical solutions to would-be social movers. They will discuss how to use public policy to fund resources into the Athens community.
“It is amazing how this compelling issue has galvanized so many into wanting to take action,” Levinson said.
But this program was not so successful in its beginning.
“Unnatural Causes” was filmed in 2007. In March 2008, Partners for a Prosperous Athens – or One Athens – co-sponsored the film premiere with Teen Matters. Only 15 people came.
One Athens promoted a later showing as a benefit for impoverished Athenians.
It drew a grand total of 5 people.
“It was unbelievably depressing,” said Patricia Thomas, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism at Grady College. “We actually lost money on a fundraiser.”
The film was relegated to classrooms and archives – until another group showed interest.
“As a political archive, we are very interested in the cross-sections of life and public policy,” said Jill Severn, Director of the Russell Forum for Civil Rights in Georgia and the Head of Access and Outreach at the Russell Library. “There is nothing more galvanizing to the public and political spheres than healthcare.”
Jan Levinson and Jill Severn started working on the program once again. Their sponsors included the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, One Athens, the College of Education, the School of Social Work and the College of Public Health at UGA.
The results were surprising. In seven weeks, over 400 people attended regularly.
“It was successful beyond our wildest dreams,” Thomas said. “It more than made up for the previous disappointments.”
Severn speculates that the new Obama administration is a cause for the programs’ popularity.
“The Obama administration has changed the way people think of healthcare,” Severn said. “People no longer assume that it is solely your responsibility. There are broader structural problems influencing it.”
The “What Can We Do?” meeting was a logical next step. Interested audience members wanted to do something about the problems they saw in the films.
It will be a roundtable discussion where participants can voice their ideas for promoting social change. There will be no scheduled points of conversation. Any argument for action is possible.
“People will learn to think in a deliberative way about solving difficult social problems,” Levinson said.
The Athens community is ready for the challenge.
EDITED: Imann Gad
Imann, Courtney:
ReplyDeleteThis is a challenging story to write, because although its premise is interesting, the way people talk about it is so arcane and vague that it's hard to present in a concrete way.
The goal of a story like this should be to pin people down as best as possible on what they hope to accomplish at this meeting, and focus on that at the top of the story. There's interesting background here about the trouble this film had getting attention, but now let's put our energy into explaining its lessons and what people are doing about it.
So a (fairly bland) lead might look like this:
-- Athens residents looking to solve the social and economic problems leading to bad health are coming together June 7 to kick around ideas. --
As for the story's ending, I like it stopping after Levinson's last quote, which is a good way out. You're not in any position to say whether the Athens community is ready for this challenge. How do you know that? What if you're wrong? That's an assertion you can't verify.
A couple of style points:
-- If you're just counting things, like how many parts or how many people, you write out numbers under 10: Only five people showed up to the seven-part series.
-- You render times like this: from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.