Save The Date: Inaugural Student-Run Social Justice Conference

Theme: Community Violence and Transformative Justice Date: Saturday, November 16th from 9 am to 6 pm Location: SUNY Downstate Website: https://sjcdownstate.wixsite.com/2019

About: We are a group of students committed to instigating conversations at Downstate Medical Center and King’s County Hospital to critically analyze our role in the gentrification of Flatbush, the hospital as a site of healing and violence, and the structural inequalities that underlie the health disparities we observe on a daily basis. We also believe that our hospital system and school can be moved towards greater and radical community accountability.  We are organizing a student-led, community-facing social justice conference.  We believe that a social justice conference set at SUNY Downstate is essential because we are the only academic medical center in Brooklyn, and unlike other private medical schools, structural violence directly affects the physical, mental and spiritual health of all of our patients. We believe that communities inspire and drive the most radical transformations, and we feel bringing the perspectives of community organizations to our school is essential to driving change in our school, hospital, and community.

The theme for this year’s conference is Violence and Transformative Justice.

The goals of this conference are: 1. To foster conversations on creating sustainable, actionable, and community-based solutions. 2. To understand how violence and trauma manifest in Brooklyn communities in particular for people who are black and brown, low income/poor, LGBTQ+, femme, disabled, and/or immigrants. 3. To work towards alternatives to mass incarceration and towards dismantling the prison system. 4. To understand the role of healing and violence in healthcare.

Please Save the date! We would love the attendance and participation of SUNY Downstate Alumni at this event!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach us at: sjcdownstate@gmail.com