Before Care Had a System

A Community Conversation on Breast Cancer Awareness, Care, Trust, Advocacy & Black Health History in Cincinnati
About this Event

Join us for the inaugural Before Care Had a System, a community conversation held in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and centered on the life and breast cancer advocacy of Mattie Bell Kinney.

Mattie Bell Kinney was a Cincinnati community leader whose work in the 1960s and 1970s helped bring breast cancer education, early detection awareness, and trusted outreach into Black communities. Her legacy opens the door for a deeper conversation about care, trust, survivorship, caregiving, access to support, and the role community plays in helping people find their way to care.

This conversation will also address how Black health history and medical mistrust continue to shape the way individuals and families seek care. For many communities, mistrust is rooted in generations of racism, mistreatment, exclusion, and harm within medical systems. Through Mattie’s legacy, this gathering creates space to name that history while encouraging awareness, early detection, support, and access to care today.

This gathering will include a short documentary followed by a guided community conversation with voices connected to healthcare leadership, cancer support, community advocacy, survivorship, caregiving, and lived experience.

Together, we’ll reflect on how care has moved through Black communities across generations — through family, neighborhood leadership, healthcare workers, faith communities, advocates, and everyday people willing to show up.

What to expect

• A short documentary centered on Mattie Bell Kinney’s life, legacy, and breast cancer advocacy
• A guided community conversation on breast cancer awareness, Black health history, medical mistrust, access to care, survivorship, caregiving, and community support
• Time to connect with local resources and community members after the conversation

Conversation Team

Facilitator & Host: Kiaya Carter
Moderator: Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney

• Laura Kinney-Porter — Founder, The Mattie Legacy Project / Story Holder
• Karen D. Bankston, PhD, MSN, FACHE, FAAN — Professor Emerita, UC College of Nursing & Health Equity Leader
• Asha Rone, LMSW — Director of Health Equity & Engagement, Cancer Support Community
• Sandra Jones-Mitchell — Community Leader, President of Avondale Community Council
• Teresa Kinney — Retired CTNA & Breast Cancer Survivor

Event Details

Saturday, October 24, 2026
11 AM to 1 PM
Walnut Hills Library
Networking and resources afterward

This event is free and open to the public.

Why this conversation matters

Breast cancer awareness is not only about information. It is also about trust, access, support, relationships, and the people willing to help others find their way to care.

For many Black families and communities, decisions around medical care are shaped by lived experience and by a longer history of being harmed, dismissed, excluded, and underserved by medical systems. This conversation uses Mattie’s story to honestly name that history while also asking how trusted community voices can help people move toward screening, support, and care before crisis.

Through Mattie’s story, this event invites us to think about what community care looked like then, what it looks like now, and how we continue carrying it forward today.

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Seating is currently limited. If registration exceeds the current room capacity, the event may be moved to a larger location. Registered guests will be notified of any location updates.