Open Society Institute (OSI) Baltimore was recently awarded a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pilot strategies to close the vaccination gaps among communities of color, which have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Join this conversation with Scott Nolen, director of the Addiction and Health Equity program at OSI-Baltimore to discuss the Equity-First Vaccination Initiative, what we currently know about vaccine decision-making, and to talk about opportunities to leverage or pool our resources to ensure that every Baltimore resident has meaningful access to empirically accurate information and vaccination plan that suits their needs.  Jennifer White of the Horizon Foundation will present on findings from a national study on COVID vaccine decision making in communities of color including local findings from Howard County.

This interactive workshop will provide participants the opportunity to explore the imperatives of ABFE’s 2020 Call to Action: We Must be in It for the Long Haul through their Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities (RPBC) framework and tools. This will include considering strategies to address a few of the Call-to-Action imperatives via a “test-drive” of at least one of two tools, What’s Race got to Do With It? and the Racial Equity Impact Analysis. This workshop builds on the Introduction to Advancing Racial Equity in Grantmaking being held on May 4th from 1:00 - 5:00 PM and is best suited to those who have attended one of ABFE’s past workshops or are otherwise grounded in concepts regarding racism and race equity.

Please join the Health Funders for a dive into the problematic health disparities in COVID-19 cases among people of color and the social determinants that play into those disparities. This program will include a conversation about addressing social determinants, and the importance of health equity in response to COVID-19, ideas for responding to health disparities through philanthropy, and areas for shared learning.