By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Last Saturday, Public Health—Seattle & King County, in partnership with the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), hosted the fourth annual “Every Month Is Black History Month” Community Health and Resource Fair. This event, held for the third consecutive year at NAAM, coincided with National Public Health Week, emphasizing the ongoing commitment to addressing health disparities within the Black community.
The fair aimed to highlight and tackle health inequities by ensuring access to healthcare resources, expanding Black provider networks, and promoting culturally competent care to improve health outcomes for the Black community in King County.
Daphne Pie, Regional Health Services Administrator for Community Health Services, reflected on the inception of the event.
“Over four years ago, Public Health King County was up against planning on what we wanted to do for Black History Month and one of the things we had talked about is the importance of recognizing that one month is Black history. That February was a short month, the shortest month of the year to celebrate the magnificent things that Black community has done and what did we wanted to do.”
Pie and her team decided to create an event owned by Public Health to annually highlight health inequities and disparities within the Black community.
“So, my team and I would have conversations on do we go with an event that is already out there, or do we have our own event? And then we started thinking about why doesn’t Public Health have an event that we own every single year?”
King County exhibits significant health disparities, particularly among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, often linked to systemic disadvantages and structural racism. These disparities affect various health outcomes, including access to healthcare, insurance coverage, and mortality rates. The Black Community Equity Team deemed it essential to create an environment conducive to addressing these issues.
“When racism was called out as a public health crisis and we created the Black Equity Teams within public health, why isn’t that we did not create our own event, and grow it every single year and be able to highlight the health inequities and the health disparities within the black community and how do we highlight what public health is doing for the black community with all the different programs. Rap it around Public Health Week to give some visibility to Public Health Week,” says Pie.
Pie acknowledged that these issues have been prevalent in Seattle’s Black community for decades and emphasized the importance of addressing them through initiatives like this resource fair.
“Some many health inequalities, to many health disparities for 25 years. Ron Sims was the one who changed the name to Martin Luther King County, he is the one who said many years ago that we have to eliminate health disparities and health inequities in the Black community and here we are 25 years later, and we are still fighting to eliminate health disparities,” Pie adds.
Listening to community concerns, Pie highlighted the need for Public Health to bring services directly to the Black community.
“The one thing that we heard from the Black community, when we talked and listened to the Black community, is that Public Health needs to bring services to the Black community. Stop expecting us to come to you, you bring it to us.”
By adhering to community needs, Pie and Devon Love, Equity and Community Engagement Manager, emphasized the importance of events like this in bringing services and resources directly to the community.
“So, it is important that we bring the services to the people so we can begin and continue to help eliminate these health inequities.”
The fair featured over 60 vendors and service providers, including small businesses, offering a wide range of services such as climate health and equity services, screenings and vaccinations, mammogram screening, foot care, and school immunizations.
“Today is a fabulous day. We have over 60 venders, resource providers, covering everything from foot care, Blue air filtration devices, which is helping to prevent toxic air indoors, so it is our climate health and equity initiative that is helping with indoor air quality. We have a lot of venders who are providing screening, vaccines, so COVID and a lot of people are coming in for school immunizations as well, which is a great perk for today’s events,” said Love. “And there is a lot of resource providers, people who are providing information for parenting, and pregnancy folks, people who are providing information about asthma, and some public health programs, mammograms, we have our dental health van, our DSHS mobile van is here to help with basic food applications and other public benefit programs that are available for support. We have a small section of Black business owners who are selling some of the crafts on site which is a fabulous thing to do.”
The fair also provided free food for attendees, along with access to various health resources, including glucose and blood pressure testing and screening. This comprehensive approach aimed to ensure ample opportunities for community members to access healthcare.
“This is important because it brings awareness to the inequities and disparities that the black community faces. Also, to make the fundamental acknowledgement that black history is American history and should be honored and celebrated every month,” said Love. “So, every month is black month, celebrating that fact, and making sure that people are aware, being able to host here in the museum of course brings that educational component.”
Source: Seattle Medium