On March 2nd, NewMexicoWomen.Org’s (NMW.O) Executive Director, Sarah Ghiorse, was invited to join and share insights, alongside advocates and organizers from across the country during a national listening session hosted by the Biden Administration’s Task Force on COVID-19. Testimonies from community members focused on how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color, rural and tribal communities throughout the country and offered recommendations for how the task force can address these inequities over the long term. Some of the issues raised included:
- Increasing mental health services and support for young people of color;
- Improving conditions for women experiencing incarceration during the pandemic;
- Addressing racist practices during the vaccine roll-out in communities of color; and
- Improving access to health care in rural communities, where it is often sparse and uneven.
NMW.O shared a few key findings from our pandemic recovery research, which focuses on the ways in which legacies of colonization, patriarchy and structural racism have resulted in rural, tribal, and communities of color, and particularly women of color, bearing the burden of the pandemic in New Mexico. It was an honor to participate in this powerful conversation, and NMW.O looks forward to continued partnership with this national collaborative.