Tucked in the middle of a neat strip mall on Oak Street near downtown Brainerd, WeARE – The Clinic boasts cheery bright green and purple signage. It's across the street from the Brainerd Family YMCA and about a block from the local high school. Welcoming and approachable, WeARE is the go-to resource for compassionate and inclusive sexual healthcare, transformational health education programming, and collaborations that serve reproductive justice in the Brainerd Lakes Area.

"Success happens every day at WeARE - The Clinic. We love creating the space for folks to ask questions, make their own medical decisions, and leave feeling taken care of and confident about their sexual health." – Devon Charlier, Executive Director, WeAre - The Clinic

Our team has been leaning into summer vibes by spending time outside, going on vacation, sitting in a hammock... resting and refueling. We have been “filling our cups,” and we hope you have, too. Resting is often seen as unnecessary and fraught with cultural narratives about how we must always be doing something to be worthy or successful. This summer, I invite you to consider how you pause and rest. Please think about what it would mean for your legacy and health equity work if you filled your cup a bit higher and more frequently.

As a part of moving from doing-doing-doing into being, our team is also taking a strategic pause to consider our work. We are taking time to reflect on what we have been doing well and how we can improve. We are planning for the next two to three years and brainstorming what the Minnesota Health Equity Networks could look and feel like. As always, we don't want to do this without you.

We would love for you to answer a few questions on our Minnesota Health Equity Connections site to help inform our strategic plan.

We will have more ways to engage with our vision and plans this fall in our regional gatherings and other convenings. Please feel free to reach out to me or your regional coordinator. 

Much care to you all.

-shor

I am TC Duong, the new Health Equity Capacity Specialist. In this role, I support Network staff, build out tools and trainings, and document the real and tangible outcomes created by building equity capacity.

I come to the team from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, where I managed a funding portfolio focused on equity-centered collaborations across sectors, such as health care, housing, and education.

In California, I co-created a resource called the Equity in Collaboration Toolkit that Network partners may find useful. There are many resources to support equity at the organizational level; however, this toolkit is unique because it supports equity practice related to collaboration. The toolkit includes an assessment designed to capture equity values, practices, and behaviors; a guide to start equity conversations; and a resource list. The assessment is a series of questions to help groups place themselves on a continuum of forming, learning and thriving in equity work. The assessment helps users understand where to begin with the toolkit.

After two months of being part of the Health Equity Networks, I have gained much appreciation for the team’s work. They are not only coordinators but trainers and thought partners with local public health, community organizations, and Minnesota Department of Health staff. Our coordinators give space for folks to take a breath, reflect, and appreciate that they are impacting health equity and consider how to move the work further. I look forward to connecting with partners and community members as we continue this work.