Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

OLRH is committed to advancing racial equity to serve all Massachusetts residents and strengthen people’s ability to create healthier municipalities throughout the state.

OLRH acknowledges the history, as well as the current reality, of structural racism and its impact on health. OLRH leads explicitly, but not exclusively, with race and recognizes that people of color have experienced and continue to experience racism, discrimination, and oppression. OLRH further acknowledges the historical and current oppression of other populations and the importance of valuing the multiple identities individuals hold.

OLRH is committed to working alongside local public health departments and Massachusetts' federally recognized tribes to address racial equity. This work aims to improve the quality of life for all people in the Commonwealth while eliminating inequities that impact the lives of communities of color that disproportionately suffer from poor health outcomes. Learn more about OLRH and its commitment to DEIA. 

CLAS Standards are national standards that were developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Minority Health in 2000. In Massachusetts, the  Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity is responsible for ensuring that agencies receiving DPH funding implement CLAS Standards. 

Implementing CLAS Standards is a way to improve the quality of services provided to all individuals in order to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity. CLAS is about respecting the whole individual and responding to the individual’s health needs and preferences. Adhering to CLAS Standards is an ongoing process and requires organizations to integrate CLAS Standards throughout their work –  from vision and mission to workforce development to service delivery.

The primary CLAS Standard is to “Provide effective, equitable, understandable and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to the diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy and other communication needs.” This is achieved by focusing on three key areas: 

Governance, Leadership and Workforce

• Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity through policy, practices, and allocated resources.
• Recruit, promote, and support a culturally and linguistically diverse governance, leadership, and workforce that are responsive to the population in the service area.
• Educate and train governance, leadership, and workforce in culturally and linguistically appropriate policies and practices on an ongoing basis.

Communication and Language Assistance

• Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.
• Inform all individuals of the availability of language assistance services clearly and in their preferred language, verbally and in writing.
• Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance, recognizing that the use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided.
• Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area.

Engagement, Continuous Improvement, and Accountability

• Establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, policies, and management accountability and infuse them throughout the organization's planning and operations.
• Conduct ongoing assessments of the organization's CLAS-related activities and integrate CLAS-related measures into measurement and continuous quality improvement activities.
• Collect and maintain accurate and reliable demographic data to monitor and evaluate the impact of CLAS on health equity and outcomes and to inform service delivery.
• Conduct regular assessments of community health assets and needs and use the results to plan and implement services that respond to the cultural and linguistic diversity of populations in the service area.
• Partner with the community to design, implement, and evaluate policies, practices, and services to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness.
• Create conflict and grievance resolution processes that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to identify, prevent, and resolve conflicts or complaints.
• Communicate the organization's progress in implementing and sustaining CLAS to all stakeholders, constituents, and the general public.

In March 2024, DPH  launched its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan to Advance Racial Equity, offering a vision, framework, and actions for centering racial justice in all aspects of public health work. It is designed to help DPH move toward its vision of health equity for all by leading with the principles and practices of racial equity across five foundational public health strategies. OLRH encourages all municipalities and tribal communities to provide comprehensive training, supervision, and ongoing discussion to support their staff in advancing DPH’s health equity vision.

Advance Health Equity 

DPH strives to contribute to a future in which every resident of Massachusetts has an equitable opportunity to attain optimal health and well-being. DPH makes this future possible through uncompromisingly focusing on addressing injustices; removing economic, social, and other obstacles to public health; and eliminating systems of oppression that perpetuate health inequities.

Lead Emergency Preparedness & Response 

DPH takes responsibility for leading efforts in Massachusetts to prepare for, respond to, and prevent public health emergencies such as emerging infectious diseases, biothreats, natural disasters, climate change, threats to reproductive and gender-affirming health care, racism, and racialized violence.

Strengthen the Public Health Workforce

DPH believes that optimal health and well-being for the residents of Massachusetts starts by cultivating optimal health and well-being for our public health workforce. DPH commits to developing a competent, compassionate, and diverse public health workforce in ways that support health and well-being; that build capacity to lead an approach to health equity that centers racial equity; and that enable recovery and resilience.

Modernize Public Health Infrastructure

DPH works to improve public health infrastructure by leading equity-centered data modernization and data sharing efforts; by updating operational systems, services, and processes; and by renovating and replacing physical plants in ways that advance health equity and acknowledge the impact of place and space on community health.

Enhance Public Service

DPH fosters public trust through high-quality program delivery, streamlined public engagement, and partnership with those most impacted by health inequities and emergent threats to public health.

These foundational strategies inform an interdependent and unified approach to public health rather than five separate functional areas of work. The DPH Strategic Plan to Advance Racial Equity is organized to dismantle racial inequities and advance racial equity in a coordinated way within each of the foundational public health strategies as outlined in the pages that follow.

Massachusetts Department of Public Health Strategic Plan to Advance Racial Equity

National CLAS Standards

American Public Health Association – Racism and Health 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – Living with Discrimination Can Take a Toll on Health 

American Journal of Public Health – Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health 

The Lancet - Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions

In order to provide services that are respectful, appropriate, and meet the needs of the diverse communities served, it’s important to hire people who reflect diverse communities. Organizations can take specific measures to attract and retain qualified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender-queer employees. These practices will signal to LGBTQ+ job seekers and potential clients that the organization is a safe, welcoming and inclusive place to work and receive services. 

Using someone’s correct personal pronouns is a way to demonstrate respect. Making assumptions about a person’s personal pronouns based on their name or appearance can create uncomfortable and harmful dynamics for job applicants, employees and community members seeking services. Moreover, intentionally referring to someone by pronouns other than those they have explicitly stated they go by is disrespectful and can be a form of harassment. 

Here are additional tips for creating an LGBTQ+-inclusive environment:

• Invite (but don’t force) staff to include their personal pronouns on their name badge, door sign, email signature, and with their website bio. Start interviews and meetings with introductions that include personal pronouns.
• In staff bios, include trainings that staff have attended related to LGBTQ+ inclusion as well as other diversity topics.
• Ensure your workplace is in compliance with Massachusetts law which gives people the right to use restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identities.
• On your website and in the employee handbook, clearly state your commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion. For example: “(board of health/health commission name) strives to create an LGBTQ+-inclusive environment for both its staff and clients. Management expects that all applicants, employees and clients are treated with respect, dignity, equity and inclusion.” 
• To support an inclusive workplace and equitable client services, encourage all employees to engage in ongoing diversity training, including LGBTQ+ inclusion. 
• Ensure that information on your care plan, both in the employee handbook and on new hire forms, explicitly includes information on gender-affirming health care in Massachusetts. 
• Make sure your anti-harassment policy includes a description of transgender and sexual orientation related harassment, and offers clear guidance on how to report harassment. Contact the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination for a policy poster to display.
• Check in with staff periodically and during performance reviews to better understand employee experiences of inclusion.
• Collaborate with local LGBTQ+ organizations to understand community needs and priorities. 
• When creating flyers, posters, or webpages, ensure that images include LGBTQ+ people and LGBTQ+ families. 
• Avoid binary gender language when talking about people whose gender identity you don’t know, or when talking about people in general. For example:
  • Avoid: Ladies and gentleman...
    Use: Welcome everyone
  • Avoid: May I help you sir or ma'am?
    Use: May I help you?
  • Avoid: I'll call on the man in the blue shirt
    Use: I'll call on the person in the blue shirt
  • Avoid: She's here for her interview
    Use: (Name of applicant) is here for their interview
  • Avoid: We need someone to man the office
    Use: We need someone to staff the office
  • Avoid: Will your husband/wife be on your health plan?
    Use: Will you include a partner on your health plan?
  • Avoid: Women who are pregnant.
    Use: People who are pregnant

Here are some additional resources that may help:

• https://www.lgbtqiahealtheducation.org/
• https://glaad.org/
• https://pronouns.org/what-and-why
• https://transgenderlawcenter.org/resources/employment/modelpolicy
• https://www.lgbtqiahealtheducation.org/wp-content/uploads/Providing-Inclusive-Services-and-Care-for-LGBT-People.pdf