Community health doesn't just encompass the well-being and vitality of marginalized communities. The field focuses (or claims to focus) on the opportunities that individuals and families are given to thrive and be self-actualized.
This doesn't align with how we understand health in most parts of the world, and that's important.
I think we could all easily say that what we want for the world doesn't align with how it understands health. I know I can/
I like to look at the intersection of community health with seemingly unrelated factors such as education, housing and homelessness, and capitalism as what liberation means to me.
If we were to look up a technical definition of liberation, it is referred to as, "the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release." Another definition that I find helpful is "freedom from limits on thought or behavior".
I mention these definitions not because I find them complete, but exactly the opposite. Liberation is this amorphous idea that is built and added to by the community. I think it is up to the oppressed to identify what freedom or "release" means to them.
And this isn't just about race or gender. We often get caught in physical identifiers like race or gender as the end all be all of our oppression. I will be the first one to say that these factors are imperative in addressing inequality, affirmation of self, and access as well as the lens that we interact with the world through. This is the foundation of Black feminist thought. However, liberation looks primarily at the influence of class, especially in a society that is as stratified as ours, on communities' ability to experience freedom in the ways that it is believed they should.
All homeless people have been stolen from. All of us who works three jobs just to survive and are still told to "spend wisely" by large corporations have been stolen from. Those in the Global South who have suffered at the hands of US imperialism and outsourcing of child and slave labor have been stolen from.
It is our right to express our power and take back our lives.
Forgive me for these being so short, I am in grad school and quite literally have three jobs (labor of love lol) and so I have thoughts but maybe can't elaborate as much as I'd like. Feel free to message me, I love to hear your thoughts.
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