storytelling to build
medical trust
Amplifying the voices of Black and brown people about bias in the health care system.
Activating health care providers to do better and drive change.
How it works
This years-long project brings health care providers and community members together for a three-part process:
Step 1:
Acknowledge and understand the toll racism within health care has taken on communities of color through restorative justice circles
Step 2:
Surface and publish stories of how that racism has affected the way Black and brown people view health care through a story collecting project
Step 3:
Develop a curriculum that brings providers and BIPOC community members together to better understand each other, and to work together to improve the patient-provider relationship
WhERE ARE WE NOW?
Three years into the project, we are now designing with community members a learning series that brings healthcare providers together with BIPOC community members to focus on their shared humanity; to practice their listening and communication skills; and to work together on practical ways to improve the patient-provider relationship.
The curriculum phase started in 2023 with a pilot that brought together BIPOC community members and medical students at Tufts, Boston University, Harvard, and UMass.
Based on positive feedback, our partners at MA CEAL received additional NIH funding to expand the pilot to include 120 providers and community members over the course of three years.
Now, under the leadership of Cheryl Harding, Everyday Boston’s Strategic Advisor on this project, community members are driving the design of the expanded learning series through a series of focus groups and through a Community Trust Roundtable. The learning series will be launched in Fall 2025.
To learn more or to participate in the series, email Cheryl directly.
In this series of videos by EmVision Productions, two patients share their experiences with bias in the health care system, and one provider reflects on how the system needs to change.
“I do believe that if I were a white woman, my questions, my concerns, everything would have been taken more seriously. And I do think the road to discovery would have been a shorter one.”
In this video, Rochelle Levy-Christopher describes how her experience as a Black woman in the health care system impacted her fertility journey.
“I got rushed to the hospital, and i was there before a few other people, and they was of a different race- They was white. And the receptionist kept saying (to them), ‘The doctor will see you now.’ And I said, ‘Well, what about me?’”
In this video, Kent Whitlock shares how he was passed over and mistreated by health professionals- and how that led him down the path to prison.
“I know that as a white woman, when I walk into a room, I am presenting as a white physician. What does that mean? How do I account for that?”
In this video, Katherine Gergen Barnett reflects on her experiences as a doctor, and the role that the medical establishment has historically played in the mistreatment of Black and brown communities.
About this project
There is a long history in America of Black and brown people being dismissed, exploited and otherwise mistreated by the medical establishment. So it is unsurprising that distrust runs deep: Compared to non-Hispanic white patients, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic participants were 73% and 49% more likely to report mistrust in health professionals, respectively.
This distrust was one of the drivers for low vaccination rates in communities of color; more broadly, distrust can lead to worse outcomes for patients, deepening the already stark health inequities in our country.
There are plenty of statistics on this issue, but not enough personal stories. This years-long project, then, aims to amplify the experiences of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), and to surface community-driven solutions through curiosity and connection. We believe that these stories, and this community building, will strengthen understanding between health providers and their BIPOC patients, leading to better care and better health outcomes.
The first two phases of this project (restorative justice circles; story collecting) were funded by largely by BU Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and was led collaboratively by Everyday Boston, Boston Medical Center, For Black Girls Inc, Transformational Prison Project, We Got Us, and EmVision Productions. The third phase (curriculum development) is funded entirely by the National Institute of Health, through its partnership with MA Community Engagement Alliance (MA CEAL). It is being led by Everyday Boston, in partnership with Boston Medical Center and MA CEAL.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
We’d love to hear from you! Reach out at: hello@everydayboston.org