David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, will talk about minority voting patterns in presidential elections at a symposium, on Monday, Nov. 5, sponsored by the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies/Johns Hopkins University (www.sais-jhu.edu) and the Universite Paris I(Pantheon-Sorbonne).

The symposium will take place at the Nitze School in Washington. Bositis will talk about “Minority Voting Patterns in Presidential Elections: Implications for 2008?” at 11:30 a.m. The symposium is open to the public. Bositis’ presentation is part of a research symposium called “The Politics of National Identity in Presidental Elections in France and the United States.”

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies has convened a group of health professionals, community health advocates and elected officials from more than a dozen states in Mississippi as part of a campaign to improve the health status of African Americans.

The meeting was arranged by the Joint Center’s Health Policy Institute. The Design Lab, as the meeting is called, is the sixth in a series. More than 80 experts are participating. They represent 22 counties and two cities (in more than 12 states and the District of Columbia) with which the institute has partnerships for its Place Matters initiative.

The opening event on Wednesday, Oct. 24, was a tour of areas of Mississippi, including parts of the Delta, including discussion of how to reduce the health disparities that persist for African Americans and other racial and ethnic populations. The tour, which was to include a stop in Vicksburg, was planned to help the group understand how “place,” including its history, culture and economic successes and challenges, plays a role in determining health status.

“By addressing upstream factors that produce poor health outcomes, “Place Matters” leverages an approach that differs from the usual disease reaction model. This initiative provides a critically important learning opportunity for participating jurisdictions and for the nation, as teams of dedicated participants develop, test and share new strategies to address social determinants of health,” says Gina Wood, deputy director of the Joint Center’s Health Policy Institute.

“We need new approaches if we are to unravel the complex problems that contribute to the health care crisis in the African American community,” said Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center.

On Thursday and Friday, the group will talk about what projects they can undertake to change health status in their communities.

HPI’s goal is to reduce health disparities by identifying their complex underlying causes and defining strategies to address those causes. Social science research has shown that patterns of health, illness, and health disparities can be modified if the social conditions that lead to poor health are changed.

The Place Matters initiative is supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The Joint Center Journal is a new weblog sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the nation's premier research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses primarily on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color.

The Joint Center was founded 37 years ago on the principle that the effective sharing of knowledge and information can help America be a better and more inclusive society.  Today, thanks to the technological progress that has given rise to the Information Age, we are finding new opportunities to reach out to people and engage them on issues they feel are important to the future of their families, their communities and the nation at large.  This blog is intended to serve as a tool for disseminating and fostering discussion on the Joint Center’s research, analysis and information.

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Ralph B. Everett
President and CEO,
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies