To Give Their Gifts

Democracy needs the extraordinary efforts of ordinary people. The experiences of the twelve creative community health leaders, which this book presents, provide excellent examples of innovative democratic leadership. Selected from recipients of awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program, the leaders range from Lorelei DeCora, who works to control the diabetes epidemic among Native Americans, to Judy Panko Reis, an advocate for accessible health care for women with disabilities, to Ron Brown, who helps recovering addicts at Odyssey House in Flint, Michigan. These activists work with people - Native Americans, migrant workers, Central American refugees, disabled persons, inner-city residents, and the rural poor - who have too little of the social goods, such as education, housing, and health care, that others take for granted. Their action conveys the conviction that the fullest form of democracy calls each of us to leadership for improved forms of community, including a health care system for all. Not only is this book rich in issues of health care delivery, political economy, and social justice, but it also contains much about the strategies of community organizing and program development. Health professionals in all institutional settings will find that the stories get to the heart of why they entered and remain in a ""helping"" profession, community organizers will find practical political lessons, and all readers will find a higher standard for democratic practice. To Give Their Gifts recaptures the neglected narratives of democracy. It places community and mutual responsibility for one another at the center of democratic leadership, explains health care as social justice, and asserts the belief that everyone has the ""gifts"" - and the right - to contribute to community.