Leveraging health care organizations’ economic resources to advance racial equity at the community-level

Speakers: Patrice Allen Brady (Healthy Homes – Community Development for All People and Nationwide Children’s Hospital), Mike Jones (University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)), Wylie Liu (UCSF), Doug Parrish (Red Dipper Inc.; UCSF)

Moderator: Megan Sandel (Boston University Medical School)

Health care organizations can advance racial health equity not only through their clinical work, but also by partnering with local organizations to leverage their institution’s economic resources to improve the economic wellbeing of local under-resourced communities, thereby improving health outcomes. Popularized as the Anchor Institution Model by the Healthcare Anchor Network, this includes creating on-ramps and pathways to family sustaining jobs for historically underserved communities, shifting procurement of goods and services to small, local, diverse businesses, and providing grants and loans to support racial-equity-focused local community development. This session featured two health care organizations’ lessons learned in this community-level anchor institution work. Patrice Allen Brady, Senior Engagement Manager with Healthy Homes, a Columbus, Ohio nonprofit affordable housing partnership between Community Development for All People and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, described how the Healthy Homes partnership developed and how it works to help revitalize housing in historically underinvested neighborhoods in Columbus. Wylie Liu, Director of the Center for Community Engagement, and Michael Jones, Workforce Development Organizational Consultant, both from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), described UCSF’s work to improve local economic security by hiring and promoting staff and procuring goods and services from local historically underserved communities, as well as providing capital for loans to support these same communities. Doug Parrish, President and CEO of Red Dipper, Inc., a small minority-owned electrical contractor in San Francisco and Co-Chair of the UCSF Anchor Institution Mission Procurement Sub-committee, shared his recommendations for how health care organizations can support small local diverse businesses. Health care organizations can advance racial health equity not only through their clinical work, but also by partnering with local organizations to leverage their institution’s economic resources to improve the economic wellbeing of local under-resourced communities, thereby improving health outcomes. Popularized as the Anchor Institution Model by the Healthcare Anchor Network, this includes creating on-ramps and pathways to family sustaining jobs for historically underserved communities, shifting procurement of goods and services to small, local, diverse businesses, and providing grants and loans to support racial-equity-focused local community development. This session featured two health care organizations’ lessons learned in this community-level anchor institution work. Patrice Allen Brady, Senior Engagement Manager with Healthy Homes, a Columbus, Ohio nonprofit affordable housing partnership between Community Development for All People and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, described how the Healthy Homes partnership developed and how it works to help revitalize housing in historically underinvested neighborhoods in Columbus. Wylie Liu, Director of the Center for Community Engagement, and Michael Jones, Workforce Development Organizational Consultant, both from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), described UCSF’s work to improve local economic security by hiring and promoting staff and procuring goods and services from local historically underserved communities, as well as providing capital for loans to support these same communities. Doug Parrish, President and CEO of Red Dipper, Inc., a small minority-owned electrical contractor in San Francisco and Co-Chair of the UCSF Anchor Institution Mission Procurement Sub-committee, shared his recommendations for how health care organizations can support small local diverse businesses. Dr. Megan Sandel, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University Medical School and a national leader in health and housing, moderated this session.