As we look back on 2024, we are filled with gratitude for the incredible partnerships and collaborative efforts that have defined our journey. Guided by our mission to invest, partner, and advocate for communities creating authentic change to heal racial and health inequities, we have worked closely with our community partners to find community-led solutions. This year has been a testament to the power of collective action and shared goals.
Our vision is to see a world where everyone leads their healthiest life, free from oppression and inequity. Together in partnership with our community and key stakeholders, we have embarked on numerous initiatives that reflect our shared commitment to these values. What does it mean to have a healthcare experience that truly speaks to who you are? How can we ensure that every individual feels seen, heard, and valued in their healthcare journey? These are the critical questions that drive our work every day and center our efforts as we move into 2025.
The Center for Racial and Health Equity
In September 2024, we leaned in even more to our commitment to listen, learn, partner and act by establishing the Center for Racial and Health Equity. This Center builds on our longstanding commitment to health equity, with a renewed focus on addressing systemic inequities and acknowledging the role we can play in the process of healing which is central to community health and wellbeing.
Throughout the year, we advanced diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within our organization. By creating an Associate Resource Group (ARG) newsletter, launching voter participation initiatives, updating our policies to be more inclusive, and introducing the Coalition of Allies ARG, we have fostered an environment where everyone feels valued and heard. Our Racial & Health Equity Integration Team has been at the forefront of our equitable efforts, achieving the Health Equity Accreditation and Health Equity Accreditation Plus from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, establishing a Health Equity Advisory Council, and setting up a Language Services Center. These milestones are part of our ongoing journey to embed health equity into every aspect of our work so that our associates and our members have pathways to their healthiest lives.
To ensure transparency and accountability, we developed an interactive dashboard to visualize and monitor our efforts in advancing racial and health equity. Launched in fall 2024, the dashboard includes 30 measurable metrics for 20 ambitious goals, such as promoting prenatal care, encouraging cancer screening, reducing food insecurity, improving language services, and cultivating a workforce pipeline of licensed substance use counselors in rural areas.
Community Funding Initiatives
This year, we launched the Commercial Tobacco Equity Initiative, a transformative effort led by the Center for Racial and Health Equity at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Through this initiative, we have awarded $1 million in funding per year for up to three years to six Minnesota nonprofit organizations and one Tribal nation. This funding supports community-led strategies to reduce and eliminate commercial tobacco access and use in communities most impacted by commercial tobacco-related health inequities.
We also made significant strides in addressing food insecurity. Blue Cross funded $1.2 million annually for three years to 12 nonprofits working to combat food insecurity and support BIPOC leaders. Additionally, we provided $260,000 to Tribal Nations for food sovereignty initiatives, strengthening self-determination over community food systems. These efforts have helped ensure that families have access to nutritious food and have empowered communities to take control of their food resources. These community initiatives assist us in paving the way for community members to live their healthiest lives.
Narrative Change
Our communications and media outreach aims to change the dominant narrative on health, give voice to those most impacted by inequity, create greater understanding of why racial and health inequities exist, challenge bias and surface possible ways forward to a truly equitable existence. This includes highlighting and centering the work we fund — and working to address structural and systemic racism within institutions that shape mainstream narratives on health. This year we sponsored content in the Sahan Journal, collaborated with the Minneapolis Insititute of Art to create public exhibitions of racial and health-equity themed artwork, supported ThreeSixty Journalism’s TV Broadcast Camp and News Reporter Academy, and funded a racial and health equity reporting fellowship with MinnPost. It is important we address implicit bias in reporting and increase positive, accurate representations of BIPOC communities in mainstream media as it is an integral part of racial and health equity. Racial and health equity narrative change is paramount in creating new pathways for health and wellbeing to be in reach of all individuals.
Looking Forward: The Path to Healing
We know that we must do more than name issues that are impacting our communities, we need to co-create a process and a path for healing. Our goal is to meet the evolving needs of the community while maintaining our commitments to our long-standing essential health equity work, like tobacco prevention and food justice. Systemic racism and its impact on health have been building for generations, and undoing this harm will take sustained longitudinal effort. We remain focused on community-led solutions, recognizing that the most effective approaches are those informed and driven by the communities directly impacted by inequities.
These accomplishments are not just milestones but part of a continuous journey towards a more equitable and just society.
Written by Bukata Hayes, vice president, racial and health equity and chief equity officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
