The Health and Racism Working Group began when colleagues working at different organizations in Peel Region grew frustrated with weak and rhetoric-filled attempts to 'manage' diversity and simultaneously silence difficult discussions around race, power, privilege -- and the material realties like poverty that arose from this form of oppression. The discussions turned to the systemic barriers, including but not limited to organizational structures and policies, and attitudes. The emphasis was both on how racism limits impact to appropriate and high quality health care, and second, how racism impacts the mental and emotional well-being of racialized communities. A Backgrounder that outlines some key research and perspectives on 'Racism and Health' is available.
An opportunity arose in the community engagement process of the East Mississauga Community Health Centre to create a space to acknowledge the disproportionate burdens that racialized communities face in trying to reach their full potential to be healthy and well. Community Health Centres recognize the importance of the social determinants of health and the detrimental impacts of social exclusion on a person's well being and a community's health.
Housed as a working group under the East Mississauga CHC, the small group began to put a community consultation in the works. On a historic January 25th, 2007, "The Health, Access and Racism Community Consultation" was launched as the first of its kinda in Peel Region, at the Mississauga Valley Community Centre. Over 140 people from Halton, Peel and Toronto gathered to share ideas, confront realities, and engage with a dynamic panel of speakers. Forum reports, presentations, and activities can be found online at http://www.eastmississaugachc.org/lamp_fileshare/
Participants of the forum expressed interest in joining the working group to continue the momentum of the discussion, and in April 2007, 12 new members attended an Open House and began their journey of preparation to tackle issues of health and racism.
For the next 9 months, this dedicated group would undertake trainings, both self-directed and at the hands of outside experts, to stimulate changes at our individual understandings and in our approach to building community capacity to eliminate racism's impact on health.
The primary focus for the next few years will be on racialized women's health. The focus is on engaging racialized women in building capacity to reduce the impacts of racism on their health and to build a united voice against systemic racism in our health and social service systems.
