Black Health Alliance
The Black Health Alliance is a community-led registered charity working to improve the health and well-being of Black communities in Canada. We centre Black communities in defining the challenges and barriers affecting our health and well-being. We provide a platform for Black people to establish a common voice around systemic problems, and we work to co-design and mobilize the tools, skills, partnerships and investment needed to implement solutions that improve health outcomes across Canada.
Strategic Focus Areas
Social Determinants of Health
Black people in Ontario face disproportionately poor outcomes across the social determinants of health. The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. Early childhood development, income, employment, education, housing, racism are all key determinants. Disparities across several social determinants of health result in inequitable treatment and unequal outcomes in Justice, Education, and Child Welfare sectors, and poorer health outcomes. The position of the Canadian Medical Association is that the social determinants of health have the largest impact on individual and population health.
Health Inequities
Black Health Alliance is committed to reducing racial differences in health outcomes for the Canadian Black population by working with the community, decision-makers, and civic allies who are on the same mission. In order to build upon previous work we need to enhance our understanding of what historical factors have contributed to this crisis, the impacts on our overall health and well-being, and what challenges we confront in addressing the issue.
Building Connected Communities
We believe that strong and connected Black communities are essential for the health and well-being of Black people.
Building Connected Communities is about building and strengthening community power, organizing ourselves, planning for the future, mobilizing capital to make strategic investments in community building, and building bridges of support and shared understanding. The ways that we build community and shared purpose across the diverse histories, heritages, languages and cultural expressions of Black communities is part in parcel to how the Black Health Alliance is thinking about how it improves that health and well-being of Black communities.
Anti-Black Racism
Anti-Black Racism is defined here as policies and practices rooted in Canadian institutions such as, education, health care, and justice that mirror and reinforce beliefs, attitudes, prejudice, stereotyping and/or discrimination towards people of Black-African descent.
When governments, healthcare and social service organizations, employees and community members work together to eliminate Anti-Black Racism in healthcare and beyond, all Canadians benefit. Join us and many more as we work together to accomplish this goal.
