Please join the Departments of Global Health, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Medicine, and the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology to identify areas for future research and collaboration. We invite faculty, staff, and fellows actively working in the field of family planning, contraception, and abortion to participate in this symposium to guide these efforts as a UW community.

CSDE Affiliate Sarah Elwood, Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington, and co-author Victoria Lawson explore how creative activism can introduce disruptive poverty politics. Elwood and Lawson center their analysis around Real Change, a street newspaper sold by low-income vendors.

Building on prior poverty politics analysis, Elwood argues that creative poverty activism produces performative encounters create connections between those experiencing poverty and those who are not. Through public art and performance, activists bring poverty knowledge into public spaces, which "create encounters across socio-spatial difference that challenge privileged subjects, raise new voices, and create previously unimaginable political forms." 

The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system has proven success in reducing substance abuse among youths. NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recently featured the work of CSDE Affiliate Katarina Guttmannova, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UW's School of Social Work, investigating how to best adapt CTC for Native American communities.

Guttmannova and her collaborators evaluated the program's assessment tool and conclude that, by incorporating culturally specific risk and preventative factors, CTC can serve as a valuable resource for indigenous communities. Guttmannova notes: “While there is a tremendous amount of resilience in Native American communities, there is a lack of understanding of behavioral health concerns and protective factors for indigenous people. The CTC has the structure and tools to provide culturally competent prevention in Indian country.”