What is this request about?
SB 682 calls on the California Health and Human Services Agency to work in collaboration with relevant departments to develop and implement a plan to reduce by at least half racial disparities in childhood chronic diseases by 2030, including asthma, diabetes, depression, dental caries, and vaping-related diseases.
How does it align with yli’s values?
1 in 4 children experience chronic health conditions, with the burdens of childhood chronic illnesses falling hardest on children and families of color. For example, asthma and diabetes are by far deadlier for Black children than for white children, and Black children are 40 percent more likely to have asthma, five times more likely to be hospitalized, and three times more likely to die from asthma-related causes than their white counterparts.
These health disparities are often the result of environmental injustice. For example, air quality in Long Beach, California, is ranked among the worst in the nation. But affluent neighborhoods are buffered from polluted air and water because refineries, freeways, the incinerator and rail yard, among other polluting entities, are all located in working class communities of color. In the Eastern Coachella Valley, as in many cities across the nation, public funding is used to update and “beautify” white neighborhoods that are already highly resourced and well-maintained while low-income communities of color are left without paved roads, electricity, broadband and other basic necessities and services. On the south side of Fresno, parks and playgrounds for youth to gather and play are few. Grocery stores are scarce, while liquor and convenience stores abound.
Our youth are impacted by these issues – and they are working everyday to address them. Kieshaun White from Boys & Men of Color installed air quality monitors across Fresno to quantify the differences between neighborhoods. BMOC went on to successfully advocate for the Zero Fare Clean Air Act that will both alleviate costs for families living with little to no income and reduce air pollution. In the Eastern Coachella Valley, youth have been advocating through storytelling and participation in local environmental justice coalitions to address the toxic fumes resulting from agricultural dumping in the Salton Sea.
What is yli doing about it?
We have just signed this letter of endorsement, and we are voicing our support on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.