Nearly four decades ago a buddy of mine and I settled into a movie theatre near Asbury Park, New Jersey, to check out some newly released film entitled Star Wars. We had just completed a grueling, demanding first year of medical school, and I thought some mindless science fantasy flick would be just what the doctor ordered: no thinking or higher-level analysis anticipated, just some popcorn, special effects, and occasional stuff blowing up on the big screen.
I was immediately smitten with what would later become a global, multi-generational phenomenon from the opening minutes of the film.
Today, I am an executive at a large, private health foundation. I have had Star Wars figurines populating my office desk for some years now -- yes, seriously -- and the work we engage in at our foundation tracks well with the themes of social change lifted up by the phenomenon of Star Wars.
Our stated mission at the California Endowment is to "improve the health of underserved communities."
So we focus on community wellness and prevention approaches in communities either ignored or marginalized by the mainstream health system: young people of color, LGBT youth, immigrant communities, tribal communities, poor rural white communities, the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, and refugee populations.
To continue reading this essay by Robert Ross, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...-forc_b_8806624.html
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