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June 29, 2021 (Cleveland, OH)

RWJF-Funded Cuyahoga County Initiative Advances Work to Eliminate Structural Racism

A collaborative initiative led by Case Western Reserve University and funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has begun the complex work of addressing systemic racism in Cuyahoga County. The ultimate objective of this project is to create short, intermediate and long-term action steps to advance equity and eliminate structural racism. This is being done using a highly collaborative process that is engaging residents and working across sectors in the community.

Grants were awarded in early 2020 and to date, the first phase of this work has been completed. In this phase, a core team began identifying and mapping systems that underlie systemic racism in Cuyahoga County. Using a participatory group model building process, they identified six underlying systems: healthcare, economic opportunity and education, racial trauma and healing, criminal justice, quality of life, and perspective transformation. 

In Phase 2, an expanded team, working in small groups, is exploring and mapping each of these systems. Next steps include gaining a broad range of community input on the evolving systems map and using computer modeling and simulation to help identify high-leverage solutions to the complex problems within these systems. 

On behalf of member hospitals, The Center for Health Affairs is one of the project partners along with:

• A Vision of Change
• Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Center for Community Health Integration
• Cleveland Department of Public Health
• Cuyahoga County Board of Health
• PolicyBridge
• United Way of Greater Cleveland

This local initiative is one of just 10 selected nationwide – and the only one in Ohio – under the Cross-Sector Innovation Initiative (CSII), which is being led by the Center for Sharing Public Health Services and Public Health National Center for Innovations, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The CSII is seeking to identify and support public health, healthcare and social services organizations striving to build stronger, sustainable connections to better meet the goals and needs of the people they serve and ultimately improve health equity.

The Cuyahoga County 2019 collaborative community health needs assessment identified the elimination of structural racism as one of five priorities for the community health improvement plan and implementation strategies for the three years to follow. The CSII grant is a funding important work toward the achievement of that priority.

For more on the CSII and local efforts to achieve health equity, contact us.