Because health inequities are so deeply tied to social forces, the approaches we use to address them must be creative, wholistic and inspired, but most especially relational. Changing policies, educating, and serving are all critical, but we also want to transform the ways in which we relate to each other.
Research supports the importance of relationships as a protective factor for resisting stress and disease across the life cycle. When people have good relationships, they feel better and live longer. Relationships affect our physical bodies and enable us to be healthier. We believe that relationships are not just relevant for individual health, but also for the health of the whole community, and that intentionally mobilizing relationships is a critical strategy for addressing health inequities.
We incorporate relationship building into all our activities. We see this as both good strategy for developing effective programs and as an end in itself. For instance, forming a shared vision, building social cohesion and mobilizing collaboratively are impossible without careful attention to relationship building at all points in the process. But as we attend to the relationships among us, we also begin to impact health at individual and collective levels.
While this sometimes seems inefficient or feels like too much talking, getting to know each other is not just a nice thing to do or a good strategy for building a coalition. As our advisory council has said, “the process is the outcome.” The process begins to create the Loving Community that is our goal.
