September 25, 2024
Champion Spotlight: Black Equity Coalition
In August, we spoke with the Black Equity Coalition (BEC). The BEC addresses inequities that structural racism and oppression have on the health, well-being, growth, and economic stability of the Black community in Pittsburgh and beyond by leveraging the expertise of social scientists, physicians, health care professionals, epidemiologists, public health practitioners, funders, government officials, business and education leaders, researchers, and community advocates.
Initially “formed in response to a lack of an equitable and just responses to the coronavirus pandemic by regional government and health authorities,” the Black Equity Coalition effectively mobilized community members to increase vaccination rates and public health measures. The BEC has since expanded their work to address the social determinants of health that broadly affect the Black community. Recently, the BEC joined the inaugural cohort of Modernized Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice. This year, they are launching the Community Data Justice Collaborative, a community data body formed by residents that will establish and maintain community governance of data, and the Neighborhood Power Building initiative, a series of resident-led data workshops developing solutions for neighborhood segregation and disinvestment, working in tandem with the City of Pittsburgh’s Comprehensive Plan.
The Black Equity Coalition is not only dedicated to community engagement, research, and building trusting and mutual relationships – they are effective in their work. Their vision is made possible through their hub and spoke model, discussed in greater detail below, along with more details about their upcoming initiatives and advice for community-based organizations looking to make a difference.
Q&A
Why was the Black Equity Coalition formed?
The Black Equity Coalition began as the Black COVID-19 Equity Coalition in response to a lack of an equitable and just responses to the coronavirus pandemic by regional government and health authorities. Although health professionals nationally championed support for adults over 60 to gain priority access to COVID-19 vaccine, Allegheny County health and civic leaders in the height of the pandemic had yet to elevate those most at risk of death to receive the vaccine – elders in the Black community. While national data showed how detrimental these policy choices were becoming to the Black residents, vaccines remained limited in its supply. Registration processes increased in their navigation difficulties. And social determinants like inequitable access to transportation exacerbated barriers and exhausted options to gain access.
A group of Black leaders noted the lumbering response to the community’s outcry for help and came together to form the Black COVID-19 Equity Coalition. The coalition designed responses that leveraged our existing relationships and areas of expertise. These actions resulted in action and recommendations for interventions, rapid solutions, and built capacity to address the inequitable identification and COVID-19 responses. Partners coordinated easily accessible registration drives. Recruited community-based organizations to make phone calls and coordinated access in locations along bus routes in urban neighborhoods.
As the Black COVID-19 Equity Coalition achieved success in addressing the inequitable responses to the pandemic, it realized that its approach and coalition model could be used to address the impact that institutional and structural racism continue to have on the Black community, which existed prior to the pandemic.
Activating this comprehensive network in a time of crisis, demonstrated the need to continue the work to improve the lived experience of Black people in the Pittsburgh region and beyond. Thus, the Black COVID-19 Equity Coalition committed to working on matters of racial equity beyond the pandemic’s eventual transition and evolved to address the breadth of SDoH, becoming the Black Equity Coalition.
What are some of the outcomes and successes from the BEC’s work in addressing the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Black community in Pittsburgh and beyond?
The BEC spearheaded Allegheny County’s first community-led collaboration to implement a public health model to address the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was unique in that its design focused on health issues in Black and Brown communities through pathways that reached those who had been left behind. Most importantly, the BEC brought rapidly changing science directly to Black communities through trusted medical professionals, and community organizations partnered with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The result was accurate science-based knowledge for Black communities to make informed decisions on critical issues of health and equity and access to vaccinations and personal protective supplies.
Community Impact By the Numbers
$8.9M
Raised through key partnerships since 2020
2,500+
People received COVID shots
397
Distributed COVID hesitancy surveys (#1)
9,292
Social Media Impressions
205
Organizations partnered with statewide
18,004
Constituency Engagements statewide
50
Counties served across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
How is the BEC addressing the social determinants of health in Allegheny county?
We have now expanded our emphasis beyond COVID-19 equity and developed several projects related to understanding the social determinants of health, particularly as they relate to Black Communities. For example, the Neighborhood Change Project aimed to understand some of the Black population changes in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. We developed a literature review on gentrification and health, conducted quantitative analyses of population change from 2010 to 2020 census, and held focus groups in communities affected by gentrification and displacement. Our newest effort explores data justice principles within public use datasets in a partnership with the City of Pittsburgh.
What advice would you give to health education organizers, educators, students, and professionals interested in advancing health equity in their communities?
(A) BEC has had impact and influence, in no small part, due to the wide and deep content knowledge of its leadership team. Coalesce passionate and committed members to spearhead the work and to draft the foundational mission, vision, and goals (MVG) to ensure a wide and comprehensive view of the needs to be addressed as well as potential assets and challenges. Ensure that members have a vested commitment to the community outside of solely professional interests.
(B) Continuously ensure that the initiative aligns with broadly understood community needs. Whether you employ surveys, focus groups, community conversations, create feedback loops and touch points to keep communication flowing about the initiative and to inform the initiative. Check the validity of the draft MVG by requesting and facilitating genuine feedback from members of the communities that are impacted.
(C) Knowledge of objective data is power. Use data as a tool to identify target areas (e.g. health disparities or inequitable policies), to record and track your activities (e.g. process indicators), to make decisions on course corrections, and for accountability (e.g. outcomes indicators). Publish and present this information publicly.
(D) Small and large organizations each play a role through their diverse mechanisms and spheres of influence. Invite and welcome “everyone” who can help to be a part of the work. Include decision makers from direct service and public policy when setting the MVGs’ objectives and activities. To be effective, there must be organizations and people who can perform the work needed to reach all facets of the community.
(E) Expect the need to raise resources to support the work.
Tell us about the BEC’s Working Group ‘hub-and-spoke’ model.
The BEC is a strength-based, holistic approach to addressing the needs of resilient residents through a comprehensive Social Determinant of Health and Equity model that promotes ongoing practices that produce shared learning and community collaboration.
The model is based on taking the assets that already exist within the community and building and growing the infrastructure necessary to connect wrap-around services to aid in the health, growth and prosperity of community residents through a Hub and Spoke approach that builds on targeted SDoHE assets to build a holistic Continuity of Care approach.
What is the Data Justice for Pittsburgh’s Black Neighborhoods project?
Modernized Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice is an initiative accelerating the development of health-focused local data ecosystems that center principles of anti-racism, equity, justice, and community power.
Through MADE for Health Justice, non-profit, community-based organizations are facilitating multi-sector teams tasked with creating local data ecosystems that aim to improve community health, connect data across local government sectors, prioritize the needs and voices of communities that have been oppressed by structural racism, and ultimately, drive just and equity-centered decision-making.
The inaugural cohort of MADE Communities includes teams from Baltimore City, MD; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; and Tucson, AZ.
The Community Data Justice Collaborative
The Community Data Justice Collaborative will recruit residents across the City of Pittsburgh to take part in decisions the City makes about data and technology through the City’s data governance initiative.
To understand what we’re doing, let’s take a step back and see where public voices typically impact city decisions. There’s the electoral process that impacts policymaking and invites comment on public meetings under the Sunshine Act. Planning and infrastructure also have norms and requirements of community input and notice. The City has even begun various participatory budgeting initiatives like with the Housing Opportunity Fund and Food Justice Fund. Now, where is public input on data governance?
This is where the Data Justice Project’s work comes in. We are convening a group of residents to provide community governance of data. This community body will be representative of people typically excluded from data decision making, nominated from the public and community orgs, and launched by November of this year.
This community data body will be convened jointly with the City Data Stewards – in a series of joint data workshops, with discussion informing data governance. We hope that residents and communities see the opportunity to make an impact on what data is available in Pittsburgh to the public, how it is used or collected, and see that change in their own lives and their communities’ lives.
The Neighborhood Power Building Initiative
The Neighborhood Power Building initiative will engage residents and a neighborhood project partner in a single selected neighborhood to provide the infrastructure to help residents in Black communities that have been most-impacted by residential segregation and disinvestment in the City of Pittsburgh claim power to improve the quality of housing and the built environment.
Project Partners will receive funding assistance to recruit 10-12 residents for the initiative. Residents will work with data in a series of workshop activities designed to build confidence and power and spark conversation. We’ll use data in creative ways – building on many of our data literacy workshops. We hope to roll out maps, dig into data contexts and talk about what data is or isn’t saying.
We’ll engage an artist in the process as well, with one of the outputs involving a report-back to the larger community and City, and we will encourage residents in the process to express their experience in creative ways.
There will be opportunities to collect data as part of the process. This data could be used to guide strategy and help community members build their power. We saw this happen first-hand in Homewood over 10 years ago – community members working through Operation Better Block with support from students at Pitt identified the properties most in-need of attention, coined them “the Dirty Thirty” and held the City accountable for boarding and sealing properties, demolitions, addressing overgrown weeds, and maintenance. In Flint, MI, data collection efforts elevated the attention paid to the experience of community members dealing with toxic water.
This project will also be working closely with City Planning to make sure the fruits of the workshop are incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan as well. We’re excited by the chance to do local-level neighborhood work on data and advocacy, and hope you’ll join us or stay tuned on this work.
The Social Mission Champion series highlights the important work done by those who are engaging in social mission by advancing health equity and addressing the health disparities of the society in which it exists.
The Social Mission Alliance would like to extend a huge thank you to Ms. Shemariah Waggoner, Dr. Tiffany Gary-Webb, Mr. Fred Brown, Dr. Shannah-Tharp-Gillian, and the Black Equity Coalition Leadership for their contributions.
