D1 - Life After “All-in”: The Journey of Operationalizing Our Anti-Racism Statement

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Full Description: AMCHP’s mission is to lead and support programs nationally to protect and promote the optimal health of women, children, youth, families, and communities. We cannot achieve this goal unless we acknowledge that racism is a public health crisis and directly impacts the health outcomes of our communities and those we serve. The physical and mental health of Black communities and other communities of color related to intergenerational trauma and chronic stress caused by individual and systemic racism is well documented. Given the recent events and collective outrage around social and racial injustice, we are reminded of how urgent this issue is for us as a country.

In June 2020, AMCHP released an “All-In” statement that served as a declaration of support and call to action for dismantling racism as well as a commitment to “hold ourselves and those around us accountable as we work, and sometimes stumble, toward progress.” Subsequently, AMCHP convened an Internal Equity Committee (IEC) comprised of volunteer AMCHP staff representing work teams within the organization to support AMCHP’s core values of infusing health equity, social justice, and inclusion into internal policies, practices, programs, services, and structures. After the selection of an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) consultant organization, AMCHP embarked on a three-pronged process of organizational EDI assessment, strategic mapping, and all-staff EDI training. On this organizational journey to operationalize AMCHP’s commitment to racial equity and translate it to action, we discovered it is crucial to create spaces where we, as staff, have honest conversations about what it really means to be an anti-racist organization and to hold ourselves accountable as well as share successes, challenges, and questions that arise along the way.

In this workshop, members of AMCHP’s Internal Equity Committee (IEC) will share their experiences as part of AMCHP’s organizational equity journey. Presenters will discuss the opportunities and challenges of ‘ensuring and maintaining equity in the process of advancing organizational equity’ within AMCHP and its operations. Like AMCHP IEC members, the presenters are diverse in age, race, organizational roles, and lived experiences, which intersect and influence organizational EDI efforts. We will foster an interactive, transparent, and thought-provoking discussion about realizing the vision of our All-In statement and will provide time for participants to share and learn more about each other's respective experiences with organizational equity work.

Abbreviated Description: In this workshop, members of AMCHP’s Internal Equity Committee (IEC) will share their experiences as part of AMCHP’s organizational equity journey. Presenters will discuss the opportunities and challenges of ‘ensuring and maintaining equity in the process of advancing organizational equity’ within AMCHP and its operations. Like AMCHP IEC members, the presenters are diverse in age, race, organizational roles, and lived experiences, which intersect and influence organizational EDI efforts. We will foster an interactive, transparent, and thought-provoking discussion about realizing the vision of our All-In statement and will provide time for participants to share and learn more about each other's respective experiences with organizational equity work.