Assessing the long-term impact of the Undoing Racism Workshop

The Genesee County REACH Community-Based Public Health partnership developed and implemented a community action plan which contributed significantly to a historic low rate of African American and overall infant mortality in the county. Central to the partnership's success was a multi-sector commitment to addressing historical, cultural, and structural aspects of racism as a focus of community planning and intervention activities. The REACH partnership supports education, community mobilization, and healthcare advocacy to reduce the harmful impact of racial inequities within social, educational, and healthcare institutions. One aspect is the pioneering integration of the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond's Undoing Racism Workshop (URW). The REACH program hosts a specially tailored adaptation of the URW, which addresses factors related to maternal and infant health. The URWs are attended by local health professionals, educators, and community residents. Pre and post-session evaluation data indicate that the URWs are effective in promoting an understanding of racism, institutional racism, and how issues related to race/ethnicity can affect health. We conducted a Long-Term Assessment across 9 years of URW participants, with 32% participation by those with valid contact information (N = 101). The majority of participants would recommend the URW to colleagues and friends and reported substantial changes occurring as a result of the workshop; 71% of participants reported that their interactions with patients (and/or Flint neighborhood residents) were different, 18% of participants reported official programs or policy changes instituted within their organization, and 13% of participants noticed changes in their community.