As we wrap up 2024, it’s a wonderful time to reflect on the meaningful conversations and inspiring insights we’ve shared with our grant partners, all of whom are excited to embark on a fresh journey in 2025. In this issue, we’ll celebrate some of our partners’ successes from the past year and share helpful resources that remind us to take a moment for ourselves, recharge, and step into 2025 with renewed confidence in our unified dedication to health justice. At the Rx Foundation, we remain laser-focused: we’re here to uplift organizations, leaders, networks, and ecosystems to advance health justice in the years ahead.

Rx Foundation has supported Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative (MOVE) since 2019 and Missouri Jobs with Justice (MOJwJ) since 2023 in their ongoing efforts to increase the collective capacity of grassroots organizations working for health and economic justice across Missouri. Through initiatives like Transformative Conversations, the in-state, year-round deep canvassing program, and supporting cohorts of organizers in strengthening their skills year after year, they are building durable capacity for year-round integrated voter engagement and statewide collaborative grassroots advocacy campaigns.

In 2024, MOVE and MoJwJ leveraged this capacity to build and coordinate a diverse coalition of 150+ organizations – including many who were new to advocacy – in support of citizen-initiated ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage to $15 as well as requiring many businesses to provide paid sick leave and to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The approval of these two ballot initiatives by voters is indicative of years-long community organizing efforts to build power among working people in Missouri so that “every worker has a voice, every family has support, and every community has what they need to thrive”.

Missouri Jobs with Justice recently celebrated making history, sharing, “Over 1,000 grassroots volunteers worked tirelessly in the heat, rain, and cold– at county fairs, parades, outside libraries and polling places, gathering signatures and knocking on thousands of doors, talking to voters about our vision of an economy and a democracy that works for all of us. We didn’t wait for elected officials to raise our wages, give us sick time and restore our reproductive freedom. We came together with a plan and made it happen. [Our] mission remains unchanged — we want to build power among working families. Let’s keep building a Missouri that supports and respects every worker—together.”

Throughout the year, we meet incredible individuals in the healthcare ecosystem who are on the front lines of advocacy and dedicated to building healthy communities. With the support of our fantastic partner networks, we’ve had the pleasure of connecting dozens of organizations that focus on addressing both the direct and indirect needs of marginalized populations. We’re excited to share one of our most recent connections to showcase the wonderful impact of networking and cross-collaboration in advancing advocacy efforts.

Earlier this year, the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) achieved a significant milestone when the federal government announced the collection of data on Arab American communities through a new “Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA) category. This development followed years of advocacy spearheaded by NNAAC and its members. Their success was propelled by mobilizing supporters, who submitted over two-thirds of the 20,000 public comments advocating for MENA inclusion. In addition, NNAAC has strengthened the whole ecosystem of Arab American nonprofits. Their capacity-building initiative, launched in 2022, provided $50,000 in grants to member organizations for hiring advocacy specialists focused on policy and civic engagement. So far, NNAAC’s advocacy program has supported over five organizations! Nadia Mavarkis, CEO of one member organization, Culturingua, highlighted how this capacity-building support enabled them to enhance their focus on policy and advocacy, resulting in increased state and federal advocacy efforts. Culturingua recently celebrated a state-level victory when the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Area Foundation submitted public comments to the Office of Management and Budget in support of #CountMENAIn. Each organization is committed to implementing a MENA category in its data collection efforts. “It’s been so awesome to be part of this national movement and also bring it close to home,” Mavarkis shared, “because this has been impacting us nationally and locally.”

NNAAC has also connected deeply with partners, coaches, and peers in the Rx network to strengthen their capacity-building program and deepen their advocacy. On a recent call with NNAAC, Kira Love shared that, “Opportunities like the storytelling or grant writing workshops, Powerlabs’ Nerdy Movement Study Group or the Power Analysis coaching and training with SCOPE were phenomenal resources for us over the past three years to deepen our network-wide advocacy, as we bring the guidance, practice, and learnings from these sessions to our state partners through a ‘train-the-trainer’ model. This model works particularly well for our network model and allows us to easily share skills and lessons learned with all members, not just those receiving subgrants. I would encourage anyone entering into the Rx Advocacy learning community to take full advantage of the opportunities offered. It is rare to have such a varied collection of resources, trainings, coaches, workshops, and connections available through a grant cohort, and there is truly something relevant for everyone and every organization.” Just last year, NNAAC was able to connect with colleagues at the National Association of Community Health Workers, another Rx Foundation grant recipient, who submitted public comments in support of MENA inclusion.

We are continually in awe of our partners’ remarkable efforts this year to create healthier communities. As numerous organizations expand their internal and external capabilities, there’s a genuine enthusiasm for further growth and development without succumbing to burnout. We firmly believe that prioritizing self-care is crucial for cultivating sustainable movements and supporting vibrant communities.

We reached out to our grantees for their self-care strategies, and we warmly encourage you to take time this winter break to rest, reset, and reflect. Let’s enter 2025 with fresh energy and a clear sense of purpose!

As we look ahead to 2025, we want to share a few resources that may be useful to your organization, coalition, or network in remaining proactive in tackling misinformation.

Tackling Health Misinformation: At a time when health-related misinformation is easily accessible and disseminated, understanding the dynamics of misinformation is vital to help ensure communities have the skills and know-how to detect misinformation and to ensure a fact-based health policy environment for decision-makers. A recent study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 53% of TikTok users aged 18-29 say they trust health information from the app at least somewhat, including 17% who trust it a great deal. The KFF Misinformation Monitor is a new program that will identify and track the rise and prevalence of health-related misinformation in the United States, with a special focus on communities that are most adversely affected by health misinformation.

Learn more about the Health Misinformation Monitor

The increase in misinformation is closely tied to poorer health outcomes, particularly for those who may not have easy access to reliable communities or resources. Earlier this month, Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Founder and CEO of Grapevine Health—a data-driven health media company dedicated to sharing trustworthy health information within communities—led an insightful session in our Power is a Social Determinant of Health series. We learned the challenges that misinformation and the complex and unclear language used in medical environments can create, along with solutions to build trusted lines of communication within our communities and those who provide healthcare.

Subscribe to Grapevine Health on YouTube

Numerous organizations are seeking methods to inform their communities about Project 2025 and its potential effects on the populations they support. Our partners, In Our Own Voice, have developed an in-depth policy brief to outline the objectives of Project 2025 and its implications for Reproductive Justice. The Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda is a comprehensive and thoughtful initiative designed to address many pressing concerns and aims to create a roadmap to a future where everyone enjoys bodily autonomy and has access to the resources necessary for success, enhancing outcomes for Black women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. With proposed solutions tackling more than two dozen critical issues, this agenda highlights the importance of intersectionality and inclusivity and aims to implement effective policies that empower individuals and communities. The overarching goal is to enable all persons, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, to lead safe, healthy, and equitable lives. This agenda represents a vital step towards social justice, ensuring that ensuring that the core tenets of reproductive justice guide policy decisions that uphold fundamental human rights.

Project 2025: The Impact On Black Women from In Our Own Voice

Joyful Organizing Strategies & Tactics: Community organizing is powerful. It meets people where they are but doesn’t leave them behind. It will be critical in the years to come. Kate Hilton, Co-Founder and Principal at Innovation Capital, Senior Leadership Faculty at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Rx coach, is leading a series on “Psychology, Trust & Joy in Organizing” next Spring for the Leading Change Network to deepen participant’s organizing skills (listening and questioning), offer relational strategies for building trust and overcoming disagreements, and share ways to generate joy and prevent burnout for organizers. You won’t want to miss it!

REGISTER: Psychology, Trust & Joy in Organizing: A Three-Part Learning Series (Mar – May 2025 via Zoom)

We are beyond grateful for your ongoing collaboration and partnership with us, and we appreciate all your contributions. As we embark on a new year, we hope you have a moment to rest and recharge for the year ahead.

At the Rx Foundation, we believe that collective endeavors, even when manifested in small actions, will facilitate our progress toward our shared vision for healthier communities. Thank you for all you do to make that possible.