Healing the Divide
Healing the Divide is CACH's annual signature event designed to forge meaningful connections between the university and community, turning shared knowledge into action on health equity. The forum brings together campus and community partners to address health disparities, amplify community voices, and showcase collaborative research and initiatives advancing health equity. By aligning academic insights with real community needs, the forum fosters active participation in designing health solutions and building partnerships that drive meaningful, long-term improvements in health outcomes.
Program Highlights
The inaugural Healing the Divide forum created meaningful opportunities for dialogue and collaboration through:
Inspiring Keynote Speakers: Colorado Poet Laureate Emeritus Bobby LeFebre opened the forum offering a powerful framework for collective healing, encouraging participants to overcome differences and pursue reconciliation. Dr. Lilia Cervantes shared the transformative power of building bridges with communities to drive meaningful change, drawing from her work with patients and families affected by kidney failure and dialysis. Kaakpema "KP" Yelpaala, Chair of the Colorado eHealth Commission and Faculty Director of InnovateHealth Yale, delivered closing remarks on "Health Equity 2.0: Where Do We Go From Here?" inspiring a forward-looking vision for bridging gaps in health equity.
Six Plenary Panels covering critical topics including women's and maternal health, LGBTQ+ health inequities, community violence prevention, brain health equity across the lifespan, mental health support for immigrant families, and diabetes care as a human experience.
Nine Interactive Breakout Sessions providing focused conversations on youth-engaged approaches to health, community-academic partnerships in violence prevention, brain health discussions with community co-design, women's health access, and community roundtable discussions about relationships with CU Anschutz.
Key Themes Emerged: The forum emphasized that chronic conditions intersect with social factors like income, culture, and access to care, requiring care models that reflect people's lived realities. Brain health sessions invited community members to co-create definitions of brain health and actively shape research initiatives. The LGBTQ+ health panel explored creating healthcare environments that genuinely understand and address disparities.
The second annual Healing the Divide demonstrated CACH's growing visibility and convening power:
180+ registrants participated in the day-long convening focused on advancing health equity through community-campus partnerships.
Faculty Associates Meeting with Student Research Poster Session held the evening before the forum, with 40 attendees celebrating student and trainee research in community-engaged health equity work, with awards announced at the forum.
Continued commitment to community-campus dialogue in a challenging national environment around diversity and inclusion work, demonstrating resilience and sustained engagement.
Community Feedback & Future Directions:
Attendees valued the honest conversations, diverse perspectives, and networking opportunities. Based on feedback, future forums will:
- Expand discussion time for deeper conversations during sessions
- Improve accessibility through scheduling and formats that better meet community needs
- Strengthen outreach to bring more voices into the conversation
- Take discussions directly into communities beyond the campus setting
The forum continues to serve as a powerful platform for showcasing campus efforts addressing health disparities, elevating community voices shaping health initiatives, and advancing health equity research across the Rocky Mountain region.
Contact: |