People(s)-Centered Health as a Human Right

Community Control Over Health

Our Vision

What We Mean by Community Control Over Health

Pan-African Community Action (PACA) advances Community Control Over Health as part of the broader struggle for self-determination and people’s power. For Black working-class communities, health has never been just a medical issue—it is a political one. The same systems that exploit our labor and police our neighborhoods also deny us the right to live healthy, dignified lives. Community Control Over Health means that the people most impacted by inequality, disease, and environmental harm must hold decision-making power over the systems that shape their wellbeing—what care is provided, who provides it, and how it is funded.

       

Through the People’s Pan-African Wellness Front (PPWF) and other initiatives, PACA organizes health workers, community members, and grassroots partners to:
  • Provide education and mutual aid rooted in political consciousness.
  • Develop community-based models for physical, mental, and spiritual wellness.
  • Expose and resist the structural violence of privatized care, environmental racism, and medical neglect.
  • Build infrastructure for self-governance, where communities control health decisions and resources rather than rely on the state or philanthropic institutions.
The fight for Community Control Over Health is not about reforming hospitals or expanding access within an unjust system—it is about building a new system altogether. One grounded in solidarity, cooperation, and liberation. Just as we struggle for community control over police, housing, and schools, we struggle for the power to protect our own lives. Health is not a privilege. It is a collective right—and only the organized power of the people can secure it.
help our people develop through organizing

Become a Supporter

Visit us every 4th Sunday of the month to practice Community Control Over Health. You are invited to receive and learn about diagnostic care, or even volunteer at the
People’s Pan-African Wellness Front

join us
PPWF outreach
PACA after tabling
PACA during door knocking
PPWF tabling