Boston Public Health Commission: Integrating Anti-Racism

The Boston Public Health Commission had already committed to eliminating racial and ethnic health inequities in Boston and applying anti-racism principles to its operations. After years of workshops and targeted activities, the leadership wanted to tie the efforts together and build shared ways of working toward health equity across the entire 1,200 person organization. IISC began working with BPHC’s Anti-Racism Advisory Committee (ARAC) to design an organizational change process that would identify strengths and opportunities for change, and engage the entire organization in learning, dialogue, and decision-making about racism and healthy equity. That effort quickly evolved into facilitating collaboration between ARAC and many other groups within BPHC, including designing an organization-wide planning around three overarching goals, and facilitating the design of professional development series for all staff connecting racism, health inequities, and BPHC’s mission. IISC trained internal workshop facilitators, meeting facilitators and content managers. With a robust curriculum, skilled workshop leaders, and internal facilitators, BPHC has trained virtually all staff and is developing a shared approach to applying anti-racism principles to their programming and operations.