Health & Racial Equity

Since our founding in 1996, CHF has been committed to improving the health and well-being of historically underserved communities in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. region. As a health foundation that was created from the sale of the progressive Group Health Association, our focus has always been to increase health care access for the un- and underinsured, and to help build regionally-integrated systems of affordable, high quality, culturally- and linguistically-appropriate patient-centered health care, all centered on one goal:  to eliminate racial and ethnic inequities in health and health care. 

Despite some success in this area, it became clear to us several years ago that while having good health care is critical for treating us when we’re sick, what actually makes us healthy, or unhealthy, are the socioeconomic conditions in which we live and work, which are shaped by public policies.  And for the communities of color whom we serve, this is particularly true. In addition to experiencing higher rates of illness and death, we knew that African Americans, Latinos, Asian and Pacific Islanders and other minorities continue to experience deep and persistent inequities in not only health care, but in income and wealth, investment in neighborhood infrastructure, the availability of affordable housing, stable employment, and education.  These inequities increase their risk for poor health.  What’s more, undergirding these inequities in health and social outcomes is structural racism.

How Structural Racism Impacts Health

In her article, Levels of Racism, Dr. Camara Jones defines structural racism as the policies, institutions, social norms, and practices that inhibit people of color’s access to quality education, sound housing, gainful employment, appropriate medical facilities, a clean environment, as well as access to power such as information (including one’s own history), resources (including wealth and organizational infrastructure), and voice (including voting rights, representation in government, and control of the media).  Given our commitment to eliminating racial health inequities, we needed to better understand how structural racism causes racial inequities, and its impact on the health.  As we learned, it’s how history, institutional practices, public policies and stereotypes intertwine in ways that perpetuate discrimination, deny access to power, inhibit opportunity and economic mobility, and ultimately lead to poor health.  Therefore to effectively eliminate racial health inequities for our region’s communities of color, we must advance racial equity by focusing on the ways in which health is determined by social, economic and political forces, or, the Social Determinants of Health.  

Working to Achieve Health Justice

To reflect our new understanding, in 2009, we expanded our mission and our logic model to achieve health justice (a term we use interchangeably with health equity), as both a goal and framework in our work to advance health and racial equity in our region.  Over the years we have shared what we’ve learned—and will continue to share what we learn—with our foundation colleagues and our community.  As a health foundation and learning organization, our health and racial equity work will continue to evolve.