Doctor of Asian descent standing next to two Doctors of color

Initiatives

Equity Systems Continuum Planning Grant

NICHQ recognizes that tackling racism and other forms of oppression must go beyond interventions at an individual level. Truly equitable health systems advance equity of historically marginalized groups. Health systems must purposefully reconstruct their systems to be rooted in equity. NICHQ has developed an evidence-informed conceptual framework known as the Equity Systems Continuum to describe and define the systems that individuals and organizations currently operate within: Supremist-Designed Systems, Savior-Designed Systems, Ally-Designed Systems, and Equity-Empowered Systems. By giving each system a name and definition, an organization can identify where they are along this continuum, consider where their current approaches have succeeded and failed, and determine what actions need to be taken to improve along the continuum. At the end of this initiative, organizations will be able to identify where they are on the continuum by utilizing an Equity Systems Auditing Tool (ESAT), ultimately allowing them to identify ways to improve their organization.

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Status:

January 2021 to December 2022

  • Who: NICHQ is building on work by Dr. Stacy Scott, PhD, MPA, Executive Project Director and Equity Lead at NICHQ, and the Global Infant Safe Sleep (GISS) Center, which developed an evidence-informed conceptual framework known as the Equity Systems Continuum to describe and define the systems wherein individuals and organizations currently operate., In addition to community partners, NICHQ will further collaborate with various maternal and child health content experts and stakeholders.
  • Funder: The project is funded through a planning grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
  • Our Role: NICHQ’s role in this project will be multi-faceted. Along with producing a final Equity Systems Continuum Framework to guide systemic change in maternal and child health, NICHQ will develop an Equity Systems Auditing Tool (ESAT) for organizations to audit longstanding policies and practices that contribute to systemic racism and other forms of oppression. An implementation plan will support organizations and health systems to determine where on the Continuum an organization sits and what strategies can be implemented to move within the continuum. NICHQ will be able to show our own internal progress along the Equity Systems Continuum based on periodic internal assessments.