Common Ground Health

04/29/2026

Speak Life! Performances: Grounding health equity in culture, community well-being, and joy

A new addition to the Speak Life! Health Equity Conference this year was a series of performances woven throughout the day—intentionally grounding the conference in the cultural traditions representative of the Health Coalitions, and that sustain health and well-being across communities.

We were honored to experience:
✨ Allegany River Seneca Dancers
✨Atebayilla Drum and Dance Group
✨Grupo Cultural Latinos
✨ Jawad Hussaini, singer and dutar player

These moments were more than interludes—they were reminders that community healing includes story, movement, music, and shared identity, and that “stronger together” begins with honoring where we come from.

More recaps coming soon—next up: conference awards and table discussion highlights.

04/28/2026

Speak Life! Awards: Honoring leadership, advocacy, and coalition impact

A meaningful tradition at the Speak Life! Health Equity Conference is recognizing community members whose leadership and partnership advance health equity across our region. This year’s awards celebrated individuals nominated by Health Coalition peers and selected by the planning committee.

📣Dr. Constantino Fernandez Leadership and Advocacy Award
This award honors an individual whose leadership, advocacy, and community engagement positively impact the health of marginalized racial and ethnic groups in the Finger Lakes region.
➡️ 2026 recipient: Michele Boyd of the African American Health Coalition. Recognized as “a tireless advocate” who uses lived experience to break stigma, uplift others, and create empowering spaces for women facing health and social barriers.

🤝 Edgar Santa Cruz Outstanding Coalition Member Award
This award recognizes a coalition member who demonstrates deep commitment to their coalition’s mission and values—leveraging networks and relationships to strengthen collective work.
➡️ 2026 recipient: Angelina Hilton, Indigenous Health Coalition. Honored for sustained energy increasing the visibility of Indigenous communities, culture, and history, and for consistently turning commitment into action in support of the Indigenous Health Coalition.

Congratulations to both recipients—and thank you to everyone doing the day-to-day work that moves health equity forward.

Stay tuned for our next recap: cultural performances that Spoke Life throughout the day!

04/28/2026

Speak Life! Panel: Frontline solutions, trust, and stronger-together collaboration

The panel discussion at this year's Speak Life! Health Equity Conference brought grounded, real-world perspective to the day’s themes—highlighting what communities are facing right now and what’s working when we listen, partner, and show up consistently.

Moderated by Laura Sugarwala (University of Rochester School of Medicine Center for Community Health and Prevention), the conversation featured Dr. Mike Hudson (Regional Health Reach), Mai Abdullah (Refugees Helping Refugees), Candace Cabral (Foodlink benefit navigator/Healthi Kids parent leader), Dr. Seanelle Hawkins (Urban League of Rochester), and Devon Reynolds (Common Ground Health community health educator; owner of Brothers and Sisters Unisex Salon).

Key takeaways from the panel:
✅ Meeting urgent basic needs is health equity work.
✅ Trust and safety are essential for access.
✅ Community voice must lead program design—community members must be at the table.
✅ Authentic collaboration drives impact.
✅ Innovation happens in the community—when people show up.
✅ Human dignity matters—everywhere.

Stay tuned for the next recap in our series—this year’s award winners!

04/27/2026

Our 2025 Year in Review is here.
In 2025, Common Ground Health and the Rochester RHIO turned data into action across Rochester and the Finger Lakes—advancing health equity through community partnerships, practical tools, and trusted information sharing.

A few highlights from the year:

➤ Love from the Start: 700+ ads delivered more than 17 million impressions promoting the importance of early relationships for infants and toddlers.
➤ Community overdose prevention: 6,869 Narcan kits distributed, and trusted messengers helped connect hundreds of people to health resources.
➤ Rochester RHIO reliability and scale: 1.7 million residents served across 14 counties, with 99.89% network uptime, plus 28 million Results Delivery messages and 1.2 million alert messages supporting care.

This new year as a combined entity with Common Ground Health, Finger Lakes Performing Provider System - FLPPS, and Rochester RHIO, we're poised for even greater impact.

Read the full Year in Review: www.commongroundhealth.org/2025inreview

Thank you to our partners and community members who made this work possible.

04/25/2026

Speak Life! Racial Healing Circle: Listening as the foundation for being “Stronger Together”

One of the most intentional (and moving) elements of this year’s Speak Life! agenda was the Racial Healing Circle led by Pete Hill, Chair of the Indigenous Health Coalition.

The purpose wasn’t to solve anything in the moment—it was to build the interpersonal relationships that make real collaboration possible. Over several rounds with new partners each time, participants were invited to slow down, listen deeply, and create space for one another’s lived experience—because building understanding across cultures and communities lays the groundwork for more equitable approaches to health and for working together in meaningful ways.

What made it powerful:
✅ It centered story and humanity, not resumes or roles.
✅ It emphasized listening without fixing—creating space where people could simply be heard.
✅ It served as a bridge from the keynote’s big ideas into the afternoon’s table discussions about barriers, partnerships, and new ways to collaborate.

Candace Cabral, a panelist and Healthi Kids parent leader, described how impactful those conversations were.

“I heard so many people’s reasons for being there—why they’re in this work, who they’re doing it for, what their community is trying to heal from. Having the opportunity to share those stories and really listen to each other is what we need if we’re going to move forward together.” —Candace Cabral

04/24/2026

Speak Life! Racial Healing Circle: Pete Hill guided us to slow down and listen—building relationships across communities so we can work together more equitably. “Having the opportunity to share those stories and really listen to each other is what we need if we’re going to move forward together.” —Candace Cabral

04/23/2026

We are still abuzz after last week's Speak Life! Health Equity Conference and excited to start sharing some of the key takeaways.

Here we share a recap from our keynote presentation, which focused on how to move from awareness to taking bold action.

After a warm welcome to the Speak Life! Health Equity Conference from Health Coalition chairs Mary Bisbee-Burrows (African American Health Coalition), Julio Jordan (Latino Health Coalition), advisory council member Pete Hill (Indigenous Health Coalition), and Stergios Skatharoudis (New American Health Advisory Group), keynote speaker Anthony Jimenez, PhD, associate professor of sociology at RIT, challenged us to “speak life” by naming hard truths—and then building something better together.

Key takeaways from his remarks:
✅ Health is a social condition shaped by housing, food security, belonging, economic stability, and freedom from persecution.
✅ Our systems can cause harm when they prioritize productivity over people—and providers feel the difference between burnout and moral injury.
✅ Real change requires community, mutual aid, and bold imagination.

We left inspired to keep building trust, strengthening partnerships, and creating pathways to care that truly humanize every person in our region.

Stay tuned for more conference recaps. Next up: a dynamic panel discussion on frontline solutions and collaboration.

04/22/2026

Earth Day is a reminder that health starts where we live—streets, schools, parks, and food systems. Our vision: systems eliminate barriers to wellbeing so the healthiest choice is the easiest one. How many boxes can you check off about your community?

04/22/2026

Save the date! Common Ground Health is hosting an Emotional Emancipation Circle Healing Weekend, June 12–14. EECs are self-help support groups dedicated to healing and ending the trauma of anti-Black racism.

Learn more and register: commongroundhealth.org/eec

04/20/2026

Celebrating partners coming together for . Together, we can address health inequities so that every childbirth in our region is a happy occasion.

04/20/2026

In New York, Black women die during pregnancy and shortly after at five times the rate of white women—and the disparity isn’t explained by poverty alone.
The good news: 78% of maternal deaths are preventable.

A new three-part discussion series from the Lawyers Coalition for Racial and Social Justice titled Better Beginnings for Black Moms and Babies will move beyond the “what is causing the disparities” to the “how do we fix them, and what can I do to help,” creating an opportunity for legal professionals, community partners and others involved in this work to align their efforts, reflecting the priorities of the community.

Common Ground Health Chief Program Officer Dina Faticone will join an esteemed panel including Twylla Dillion, MBA, Ph.D.

🗓️ April 28, 2026 | 5:30–7:00 PM
📍 MCC Downtown Campus, 321 State Street
✅ Free & open to the public

Be part of the conversation (and the solutions). Register today: https://mcba.org/?pg=events&evAction=showDetail&eid=346264&evSubAction=listMonth&calmonth=202604

For the best experience, please log in to access members-only content and resources. If you are an MCBA member, and you have never logged on to the website, click “Forgot Username or Password” to create your log-in credentials. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact shearn@mcba.or...