B'more for Healthy Babies Equity Workgroup
Why It's Important
Every Baltimore baby—no matter who she is, where he lives, how much money her family makes, or the color of his skin—should have the opportunity to thrive and grow into a healthy child. The BHB Equity Workgroup strives to build the capacity of BHB’s Core Implementation Team and partners to understand how racism and other forms of oppression operate in our institutions, in our work, and in our lives and how we can dismantle racism. It is our goal to eliminate racial disparities in birth outcomes and infant mortality for Baltimore’s babies.
How It Works
The Equity Workgroup meets monthly and provides opportunities for training, growth, and difficult conversations about our work. In 2013, we began the workgroup through a technical assistant grant to participate in the first cohort of the 3-year CityMatCH Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes. Starting in 2016, we held a series of 13 Undoing Racism workshops with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond with staff and partners. In addition to Equity Workgroup meetings, we hold two monthly caucus meetings, one for people who identify as people of color and one for people who identify as white, to deep dive into how internalized racial oppression manifests in our work.
What the Coalition is Doing
The Equity Workgroup provides regular training and growth experiences on critical issues including implicit bias, microaggressions, the impact of the chronic stress of racism and oppression on physical and mental health, using strengths-based anti-racist language in our communications, and analyzing policy and practices for unintended consequences. We analyze our initiative’s data by race and other variables to identify disparities and set targets for change. We work as a team to support each other in making equity a primary focus of all BHB workgroups, coalitions, and direct services the community.
Who is at the Table
Baltimore City Health Department • Family League of Baltimore • HealthCare Access Maryland • Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs • University of Maryland School of Social Work • Baltimore Medical System • Planned Parenthood