Boston Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Riskand Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations - The Boston Public Health Commission will implement the Boston Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations. The goals of this project are to build capacity as a public health department, and better integrate public health preparedness, racial equity, equitable community engagement and workforce development with a focus on the public health workforce of the future, throughout the organization. Among the BPHC bureaus to be involved in implementing the activities in this grant are: (a) Child, Adolescent and Family Health, which oversees our maternal and child health programs (including the HRSA funded Boston Healthy Start Initiative and our home visiting programs), early childhood mental health, school-based health centers, neighborhood-based violence prevention and trauma response and a range of youth development and peer leadership programs. (b) Community Health Initiatives, which develops and carries out programs to support healthy eating and active living, injury prevention, tobacco control, occupational health, asthma control, lead poisoning prevention, workplace safety and health and access to health services. (c) Infectious Disease, which leads our COVID-19 response and is responsible for surveillance and control of communicable diseases dangerous to the public’s health such as hepatitis, norovirus, meningitis, and measles. The bureau also operates a syndromic surveillance system within Boston to provide real time situational awareness. (d) Emergency Medical Services, Boston’s municipal EMS system and the largest EMS in New England BPHC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness, which carries out preparedness, response and recovery roles dealing with the health and medical impacts of emergencies, particularly for those most vulnerable reports directly to the Executive Office. In our COVID-19 response to address inequities in health conditions and social determinants of health that increase vulnerability to COVID-19 or are impact by it, we engage a wide range of community partners. Among the types of partners we are currently engaging in this work—and who are expected to be involved in carrying out some of the activities outlined in our application—are: community health centers, hospitals, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, organizations serving immigrants and specific racial/ethnic communities, labor unions and other worker organizations, K-12 education, early childhood, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Throughout the pandemic we have worked with a group of immigrant-serving media to increase access to information and resources.
