In follow up to the July 15th racial equity web forum, San Mateo County (SMC) Health Public Health, Policy and Planning (PHPP), Behavioral Health and Recovery Services’ (BHRS) Office of Diversity and Equity (ODE), and the SMC Health Government Alliance for Racial Equity (GARE) cross-divisional team hosted its second racial equity web forum on September 10, 2020 titled Sharing Challenges & Opportunities: Implementing Racial Equity in County Health.  The purpose of this session was to provide more space and opportunity for attendees to engage in small group dialogue on how racial equity issues impact our work and to identify key priority actions needed to support staff, partners, and leadership in implementing racial equity in County Health.

Participants also had the opportunity to learn about and share reflections on the feedback that we’ve gathered through the previous racial equity forum and survey, which has highlighted key strengths, gaps, and priorities for strengthening racial equity in County Health.  Below are the four major themes that emerged from this data and you can read more about each theme and a summary of our learnings in the link below titled “Summary of Findings – July 15^th Racial Equity Discussions and Post Survey”.

Four Major Themes Identified:

1. Normalize conversation on racial equity
2. Advance systems and policy changes
3. Improve safety and promote transparency and accountability
4. Integrate racial equity work in current workloads and work culture

We look forward to continuing this important work by taking back all that’s been shared to date to shape and inform the County Health Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP) and to also share this input with larger Countywide racial equity initiatives including the Countywide GARE Racial Equity Plan, the Office of Equity and Social Justice, and the County Recovery Plan.  

Ways to Get Involved and Connect to Resources

• If you would like to get involved in the GARE work, please email the subcommittee chair below that best matches your interest and areas you can contribute to.
  • Capacity Building and Training: Darryl Lampkin, dlampkin@smcgov.org
  • Policy and Operations: Gladys Balmas, gbalmas@smcgov.org
  • Data: Don Orr, dorr@smcgov.org
  • Communication and Recruitments: Tania Perez, tsperez@smcgov.org
  • Intro Cohort (REAP updates): Frances Lobos, flobos@smcgov.org
• We have also started a list of resources on racial equity for individual learning.
• If you are interested in arranging a racial equity 101 training for a County Health board or commission, please reach out to Shireen Malekafzali, smalekafzali@smcgov.org with a copy to Kathy Harnack, kharnack@smcgov.org. 
• If you are interested in getting involved with Health Equity Initiatives (HEIs), please see this link here for a list of HEIs meetings and contact information. 

If you have any questions or would like to suggest additional racial equity resources or ideas, please email hpp@smcgov.org.

List of event materials:

• Agenda
• Powerpoint presentation (in PDF format)
• Summary of Findings – July 15th Racial Equity Discussions and Post Survey
• Recording of the web forum
• Summary of Small Group Breakout Discussions
• September 10th Racial Equity Forum Survey Results
• Zoom Poll Data July 15th and Sept. 10th Racial Equity Forums