Case Study: The Colorado Trust
Building Healthy Organizations
Building a Strong and Diverse Field of Health Equity Advocates
Overview
The Colorado Trust, a health equity foundation based in Denver, implemented the Health Equity Advocacy Initiative (HEA), with a cohort of 18 non-profit organizations, to build a strong and diverse field of health equity advocates throughout the state. For four years, the Kahakulei team provided training, facilitation, and consultation for the member organizations and over 50 network partners. The members voiced a need to place race as a central lens through which all work was seen. However, not all communities, (particularly in rural areas), saw themselves as directly impacted by diversity and race, creating an imbalance within the group. The goal of our work was to build a foundation of compassion and empathy towards diversity and racial issues within the Cohort, advance their policy agenda, and facilitate healing toward action.
Solution
We organized a series of twelve, three-day statewide convenings where participants experienced a deep immersion in local communities, particularly through the lens of race and class. We also facilitated over one hundred Transcultural Bridge trainings and community healing circles throughout the state, as well as a series of ten virtual summits during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, we facilitated monthly working group meetings and trained thirty-six Second Circle facilitators to sustain the work.
Outcome
Through their advocacy and policy work, 80% of the health and wellness bills that the cohort advocated for in the last three legislative sessions were approved. Cohort members provided leadership in equity-focused coalitions such as the Governor’s Covid-19 Health Equity Response Team, Left Behind Worker’s Fund, and the Navigating Budget Cuts Coalition. Cohort organizations are employing practices of racial healing and respectful confrontation to build bridges in their communities. Beyond these wins, the power and depth of the relationships they built was the most important outcome of the HEA Initiative, and something that Cohort members noted would serve as core building blocks for a thriving, resilient field of health equity advocates in Colorado.
“As a rural community member and nonprofit leader, I struggled articulating to my organization and community on why we are centering race in our equity work. The Kahakulei team supported us by engaging in our own stories of othering and belonging, coupled with better understanding systemic and structural racism and how it impacts communities and disparities – especially rural communities like ours made up of primarily white people.
The Second Circle series was a game changer in our community. Participating members walked away with a deeper understanding and empathy of each other and marginalized populations. They immediately implemented a more inclusive way of acting. We were fortunate enough to have 5 community members trained as Second Circle facilitators, which has perpetuated this deep learning in our community and helped to create a culture of inclusion, healing, and action.”