NEPHTC was pleased to share its ongoing Diversity Quality Improvement work with public health programs and colleagues at the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) conference this May.  Working on Diversity means continual quality improvement in processes.  The processes we have been working on, since prior to the current grant cycle are:

• Marketing
• Applications
• Selection
• Support

Download a PDF of the poster “What Does Diversity Mean? Collecting participant data to reflect valuable differences across the New England States and increase confidence to work with diverse communities” here.

As highlights in each of these functional areas:

• We were delighted to share that we improved our marketing to racial and ethnically diverse student groups.  Other underserved student groups were harder to reach, and more relationship building is needed.
• We learned that our Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Minority (SOGIM) data collection in our application needed improvement.  We worked with two community-based organizations to improve those questions (Maine Trans Net in Maine, and Open Door Health in Rhode Island).
• We broadened our reviewer pool, to strengthen our application review capacity and move towards a more equitable process.
• We identified that we may need to provide more support for applicants to complete applications. We are looking to learn more about this, while implementing some early changes.

Beyond those functional areas, a diversity focus in a region with widely varying racial/ethnic diversity, with a commitment to all geographies in the region, means allowing student placements to reflect the disparities and diversity in their community.  This commitment to each of the New England states with their unique needs and valuable differences means NEPTHC will continue to improve relationships and practices, gather data and results, work with community to improve the practices, and share are our practices with colleagues.

NNPHI Poster Authors:

Maurine Crouch, MPHI, CHES Yale School of Public Health

Karla Todd Barrett, MBA, MSM, Boston University School of Public Health

Martine Chase, MSc, Boston University School of Public Health

Christian Mazimpaka MD, MSc, Boston University School of Public Health