A4.02 - Deep Dive: From Knowledge to Action: Using Groundwater Workshops to Increase Understanding of Racial Inequity

Brief Abstract Summary: Discover how “Getting Grounded” is a critical first step for advancing health equity and racial justice across the health care ecosystem. Presenters will share the design and insights from racial equity workshops with over 100 racially diverse members of the Rise to Health Coalition (RtHC) including individual practitioners and members of health care, pharmaceutical, research, biotech, and payer organizations. Attendees will learn about workshop results including significant increases in self-reported knowledge of racial inequity and confidence in using data to support these beliefs. We will explore how these “transformational” and “exemplary” experiences may help to build the container for equity work and cultivate commitment for subsequent action steps to advance health equity.

Detailed abstract description: The Rise to Health Coalition (RtHC) seeks to advance health equity and racial justice through coordinated and collective action across the U.S. health care ecosystem. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) collaborated with the Groundwater Institute (GWI) and others to design and implement a set of foundational Actions and Activities that build capacity of RtHC members and catalyze change over time. As a part of the first RtHC Action Step, “Getting Grounded in Your Local History and Context,” the RtHC and GWI offered workshops to deepen RtHC members’ understanding of racial inequity. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss how this model might contribute to workforce development and mobilization in their own settings.

The RtHC evaluation partner, Westat, assessed the workshops via pre/post surveys, member listening sessions, and staff interviews. 107 participants completed the pre-survey and 87 completed the post. Most participants were in their 30s (30%), 40s (28%), or 50s (24%) at the time of their participation in a session. Fifty-two percent identified with a racially minoritized group, and 5 participants (6%) identified as Hispanic or Latino.

Participants reported significant increases in knowledge of racial inequity and confidence in using data to support beliefs regardless of session length. Prior to the workshops, 33% of respondents strongly agreed that socio-economic differences do not explain racial inequity (vs. 71% post-workshop, p<.0001), 91% strongly agreed that reducing racial inequity requires changes to systems and structures (vs. 100% post-workshop, p=.002), and 67% strongly agreed that understanding discrimination against Black people is important to understanding discrimination against any other group (vs. 89% post-workshop, p<.0001). Many respondents initially reported being unable to support their beliefs with data, but most indicated they could do so after attending the workshop (p <.02 for all measures). When asked to provide feedback about their experience, the sessions were described as transformational, eye-opening, and impactful. Many conveyed a strong desire to implement the learned concepts in their workplaces and emphasized the workshops’ practical utility, describing it as exemplary.

RtHC staff perceived that in-person participation fostered stronger engagement and created deeper relationships among participants, increasing their engagement for the remainder of the cohort. Even for those that experienced it virtually, the GWI experience served as an essential tool for getting grounded in equity work. While these results are promising, additional studies are needed to further evaluate the workshops, confirm their effectiveness at increasing knowledge and confidence, and assess whether these increases, if confirmed, lead to actions that promote racial equity.