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Today the employer-based family-benefits platform Cleo announced a slew of new product features aimed at helping working Black and BIPOC-identifying families navigate today’s healthcare system.
Discrimination based on race is nothing new in healthcare, but the pandemic laid bare just how much race impacts a person’s health outcomes. In fact, Black and African American individuals are 1.1 times more likely to catch COVID-19, 2.9 times more likely to be hospitalized for it and 1.9 times more likely to die because of it than white individuals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is not new to Cleo,” Dr. Chitra Akileswaran, cofounder and chief medical officer at Cleo, told
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Bell, also a prolific podcaster and an ACLU Celebrity Ambassador for Racial Justice, is part of the robust slate of presenters assembled by UCSB Arts & Lectures for its season-long look at systemic racism and its impact on society.
Race to Justice is a suite of events featuring leading activists, creatives and thinkers, meant altogether to expand our understanding of the issues and to inspire an expansive approach to advancing racial equality.
“W. Kamau Bell manages to make us laugh while having tough conversations or as he says, awkward conversations around race, identity and more,” said Celesta M. Billeci, A&L executive director. “We’ve had a lot of very serious presentations on our Race to Justice series, and those have been important and powerful, but we’re looking forward to taking a different approach with Bell.
Housing and Development Newsletter
Dr. Jemison broke more than the sound barrier in 1992 when she climbed aboard the space shuttle Endeavour and became the first woman of color to travel into space. She was also NASA’s first Science Mission specialist performing experiments in material science, life science and human adaptation to weightlessness.
Currently at the helm of the 100 Year Starship, a Pentagon-funded effort, Jemison is pioneering and transforming breakthrough science and technology to enhance the quality of life on Earth. She has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame, and is featured in the children’s book Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History.
It is not enough to be “not racist.” Health organizations have a solemn duty to heal and facilitate health. We must actively eradicate racism from our policies and practices.
UPMC offers emergency medical training program in underserved communities Inspired by the Freedom House ambulance project, it is designed to offer employment where the pandemic created or furthered economic disparities.
, Associate Editor
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center along with the UPMC Health Plan has begun recruiting for its Freedom House 2.0 program that will train and employ two cohorts of emergency responders from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Beginning in the new year, the program will consist of two 10-week sessions that focus on teaching traditional EMS services along with nonemergency psychosocial training. Trainees will complete both an Emergency Medical Technician course and a community health worker course. Each trainee will receive one-on-one mentorship, shadowing opportunities across the healthcare field, and mental health and resiliency training.