Health equity action plan for WNY focus of Igniting Hope conference

Igniting Hope 2025, focused on “Building a Community Plan for Health Equity,” will take place Sept. 20 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

The annual free conference, which is open to the public, is a partnership between UB’s Community Health Equity Research Institute, the Buffalo Center for Health Equity and the Erie County Office of Health Equity.

Now in its eighth year, the conference has become a crucial way for community members, faculty, staff, students and trainees to come together to address Buffalo’s social determinants of health.

The event kicks off with Community Day from 5-8 p.m. Sept. 19 in Martin Luther King Park. The family-friendly event provides an opportunity for community members to enjoy games, music and a live DJ while sampling free food from food trucks, courtesy of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity. Health on Wheels, UB’s mobile health van, will provide educational information and health screenings. Local community organizations will provide information about their programs and services.

The conference itself will begin at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 with a light breakfast and run until 4:30 p.m., with a reception from 4:30-5:30 p.m. All activities take place at the Jacobs School, 955 Main St., Buffalo. Parking for the event is free at the 854 Ellicott Street Parking Garage.

Registration information and the event agenda are available online.

“With such strong community involvement, the Igniting Hope conference provides a perfect opportunity for all of us to come together to develop a health equity action plan and to establish priorities for making meaningful, systemic and structural changes to improve the health of Western New Yorkers,” says Heather Gardiner, inaugural Carl V. Granger Endowed Chair in the Department of Family Medicine and director of UB’s Community Health Equity Research Institute.

The conference will start with a plenary panel session featuring experts sharing context on local challenges. Topics include:

• Bridging the Gap: Health Care for Everyone.
• Learning for Life: Literacy and Education.
• Mapping our Homes, Building our Future.
• From Farm to Table: Cultivating Food Equity.
• Pathways to Prosperity: Workforce Opportunities.

Each panelist will speak about one social determinant of health. These include housing affordability, stability and revitalization efforts; barriers to primary care and innovative health care access models; food security and healthy communities, addressing food deserts, affordability and community food initiatives; workforce development, such as challenges of underemployment and pathways to living-wage jobs; and education and literacy, including literacy gaps, adult education and lifelong learning.

Panelists include:

• Tara Schafer, executive director, Literacy Buffalo Niagara, where she leads initiatives to improve adult literacy and ESL education across Western New York.
• Kenyani Davis, chief medical officer at the Community Health Center of Buffalo, where she advances equitable access to high-quality health care for underserved populations. Davis, a Jacobs School faculty member, completed residency training and her public health degree at UB.
• Amun Ra, chief executive officer of AHR Development, a firm focused on affordable housing, real estate development and community revitalization projects.
• Asantewa Holley, chief operating officer of the Northland Workforce Training Center, a regional hub for advanced manufacturing and clean energy workforce training.
• Samina Raja, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Architecture and Planning, and principal investigator at the UB Food Lab.

Along with facilitators from the Clementine Group, a Buffalo-based community planning organization, Gardiner and colleagues will guide participants through morning and afternoon interactive workshops focused on each of these topics. The goal is to create a comprehensive, community-led strategic plan focused on improving health equity. 

New this year is a youth engagement room led by Bits & Bytes. In this interactive STEM activity, kids will team up with the Bits & Bytes crew to explore the intersection where technology meets healthy living. Participants will learn the basics of coding by programming small robots to complete fun challenges.

Kids ages 5-14 will experiment with simple coding to track and display step counts, discovering how devices like fitness trackers help people stay active. By combining robots, coding and step counters, children will see how STEM skills can be applied in playful ways that also promote wellness.

Online registration for this free activity is required. Space is limited.

Welcoming remarks at the conference will be made by President Satish K. Tripathi; Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School; Heather Gardiner, inaugural Carl V. Granger Endowed Chair in the Department of Family Medicine and director of UB’s Community Health Equity Research Institute; and George F. Nicholas, chief executive officer of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity and chair of the African American Health Equity Task Force.

Sponsors include the Jacobs School, the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions, UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Highmark, Independent Health, the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York, the city of Buffalo Common Council Masten District and the Clementine Gold Group.