On Thursday February 23, 2024, at 10am I had the opportunity to meet with two great men. Now, they might not agree but to me they are not only because they are successful in their lives but more importantly because of their commitment to giving back to their communities. I am talking about Dr. Jason Ogiste Urologist and physician leader and Tony Jackson Leader of the Westside Legends. I wish I could have recorded this conversation because it is a great example of how a health system and community partner come together and plan how they can support a part of the community that is struggling. These are the conversations I strive for in my work so that we can address the health dispartities in our community.
We are three Black men, so our focus was on the health of Black men. We shared our own experiences and spoke on why we are driven to make a difference. If you do not know who the Westside Legends are I will leave a link at the end of this post to their website. Also, you can read the report recently released by Greylock Federal Credit Union and the Westside Legends are featured because of their work in giving westside residents the opportunity to own a home. I learned about the work Dr. Ogiste did in his Harlem community as a physician leader doing barber shop rounds and going to churches to speak on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. The three of us spoke on the struggles of Black men and why we are continuing to see a decline in life expectancy which is the lowest among all populations. It is something that we want to address here in the Berkshires.
Many ideas came from this meeting, and I am looking forward to the journey the three of us will take together to improve the health of Black men in Berkshire County.
In my role as the leader in Health Equity I am here to support all 130,000 residents of Berkshire County. There is a lot of work to do to bring generational changes in health. Part of that work is recognizing where our challenges are and then focusing the needed resources to that area. We do this work not to the exclusion of others but to know that when you uplift one part of the community you uplift all. In other words, if there is a fire in the kitchen and we are in the living room we can’t ignore the kitchen fire or soon the entire house will burn. We put the fire out in the kitchen so we can save the entire house. I am here as a representative of Berkshire Health to work with all our community partners and together we will lead this county to address our challenges and have an impact for generations to come.
“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.” W.E.B. Du Bois
Happy Birthday W.E.B. Du Bois
Charles Redd RN
Dignity Freedom Fighter
Dignity Freedom Fighter 