Racial Justice Impact Assessment (RJIA) Tool

The intertwined pandemics of racism and COVID-19 have been deadly for Black Americans and other communities of color. They have put a spotlight on public health and the important ways that the field must become explicitly anti-racist to advocate for institutional and system changes that will facilitate good health. In June 2020 the Washtenaw County Board of Health responded with a resolution naming racism a public health crisis. The full text of the resolution can be found on the Washtenaw County Health Department website. It

includes the vision that “BE IT RESOLVED that the Washtenaw County Board of Health fully supports the explicit confirmation of racism as a public health crisis and the dedication of Department resources to deepen this work in solidarity with social movements for racial justice and in accordance with the Health Department’s vision and guiding principles for health equity.” There have long been community members and staff that have called for the health department to be explicitly anti-racist and disrupt structural racism. This project builds on prior work on health equity within the WCHD. This project is focused on creating a tool to help WCHD identify how racism is at work in its programs and policies and act to disrupt those patterns.

Author: Washtenaw County community members and Washtenaw County HealthDepartment Staff and Leadership
Resource Type: Online Article/Report