Past Events

The Building Racial Equity series, developed by Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation, are interactive trainings for those who wish to sharpen their skills and strategies to address systemic racism and advance racial equity. Unlike “diversity trainings” which primarily focus on interpersonal relations and understanding, these trainings emphasize how to challenge and change institutional racial inequities.

Building Racial Equity: Foundations is the first and “foundational” training of the series. Participants will build on and strengthen racial equity practices for themselves and their organizations and networks. This training will introduce participants to concepts, frames, and tools that are essential to a productive racial equity practice. Attending this training is required to participate in subsequent series trainings.

During the first eight months of 2020, police in the U.S killed 164 Black people. This unbridled violence by law enforcement, combined with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, lay bare the deadly effects of institutional racism on the health of our communities and force us to examine how racist policies contribute to inequitable health outcomes.

This year’s virtual conference, convened by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) with support from the Center for Strategic Prevention Support (CSPS), offered prevention practitioners from across the Commonwealth an opportunity to examine our role in perpetuating these inequities and explore potential solutions.

Specifically, participants explored:

• How racism and racist drug policies affect health outcomes
• How the power dynamics present in our communities affect our prevention work, and how we can influence these dynamics
• Ways to restore or develop relationships with community partners, and reimagine what community-led engagement might look like
• Ways to apply a social justice and racial equity lens to our substance misuse prevention work.

The 3-day virtual event included a combination of plenaries, breakout workshops, and panel discussion. Participants were also invited to join optional networking and debrief sessions at the start and end of each conference day.

Attendance from all BSAS funded prevention grantees/programs was mandatory as a condition of funding. Funded programs were represented by the coordinator(s) from the lead cluster community (MOAPC and SAPC) or a designated representative were they not be able to attend.

Plenary Session Recordings

• Full plenary session: https://youtu.be/ymoDSzUzWlU
• Presentation by Dr. Flojaune Cofer (Keynote): https://youtu.be/OMv4YgHJk6s
• Presentation by Dr. Vanessa Hintz (Power Dynamics): https://youtu.be/rTizrVuZO3o
• Presentation by Dr. Obari Cartman (Community Engagement): https://youtu.be/zGZaC5BIrcA
• Presentation by Makani Themba (Social Justice/Practices): https://youtu.be/BII4PY-kbI0
• "Ecologies of Acknowledgment" by Sarah Kanouse: https://vimeo.com/354699007
• "White Privilege" by Kyla Jenée Lacey: https://youtu.be/Qkz5UmXugzk

Workshop Session Recordings

• Power Dynamics (Vanessa Hintz and Albert Gay): https://youtu.be/DdKM2oB3RI0
• Community Engagement (Obari Cartman): https://youtu.be/Jljm0FFfRH0
• Social Justice/Practices (Makani Themba and LaShonda Williamson-Jennings): https://youtu.be/xZPTXhAEuyQ

PowerDynamics WkShop slides can be viewed here: https://prezi.com/view/jCpPYmhz8GBbktZ53x2e/

Closing Session Recording

• Closing: https://youtu.be/AQKpDmDMH0I​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​