Children's Health and Wellbeing

Companies Spend Billions to Market Food & Beverages Harmful to Our Health — And They Are Succeeding

The unhealthy products that food and beverage companies encourage consumers to purchase are directly linked to diet-related diseases like heart disease, obesity and diabetes — which disproportionately impact communities of color.

Burness News Fall 2022 Burness Forum featuring Professor Loretta Ross

Watch the 2022 Burness Forum on calling out culture featuring Professor Loretta Ross.

Burness News

Reflections on Communicating to Call People In—Not Out

Connecting people to build collective power is at the core of what advocacy means to me. That’s what I learned after four years of serving as a student reproductive justice advocate, and that’s what I was reminded of during Burness’s most recent Forum with the incredible advocate and Professor Loretta J. Ross and others.

US Health

The Importance of Voting Forward

This Election Day, remember that you’re not voting just for yourself, but for the type of world you want those who come after you to live in. Perhaps most importantly, remember that your voice matters.

Children's Health and Wellbeing

Young People Are Facing a Mental Health Crisis. Afterschool Programs Can Help.

Decades of research show that kids who participate in afterschool programs gain significant, lasting benefits like building social skills, forming healthy relationships, making smart decisions, avoiding risky behaviors, doing better in school and graduating on time. Afterschool programs also connect young people to resources like social services and counselors who are trained in helping people heal from trauma.

US Health

From the Classroom to My Living Room: Coping with Gun Violence as the Daughter of Public School Teachers

There’s no commandment etched into stone that teachers must sacrifice themselves for their students, but the feeling that they should is as palpable as it is suffocating. In many ways, teachers are their students’ protectors and advocates, charged with their wellbeing and education until the school day ends. But there’s no bell that dismisses my mom from her role as my greatest champion.

Gender and Sexual Reproductive Health

It Takes a Village: Motherhood During Unprecedented Times

Becoming a mom is a transformative experience (in both good and challenging ways), and all of it is trial by fire. The saving grace of it all, though, has been that we’re not alone. We have our “village” to lean on: our fellow Burness parents, our local moms' groups, our friends who’ve already had kids and our own parents. And that village is an extra comfort right now as we navigate trying to raise our babies during a pandemic (with vaccines for our babies only recently approved), historic inflation, a climate crisis, a national formula shortage, attacks on reproductive rights and more.