Creating a Culture of Equity Workshop

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

In 2014, Montgomery County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) developed and piloted a workshop series titled “Creating a Culture of Equity”. It is a peer led workshop series created to establish a common understanding of the Equity value and principles across the department and to intentionally apply those principles in our policy and budget decisions and the way we engage our community. The “Creating a Culture of Equity” workshops focus on the understanding of social determinants that impact health and well-being, challenge assumptions, and encourage a culture to support innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning throughout the department. A cohort of peer facilitators were recruited, trained and mentored to help them thoroughly absorb the content of the workshop and in turn delivered the workshops to their peers. The use of internal staff as facilitators to conduct sensitive discussion around inequities, disparities and biases resonated strongly with their colleagues. Most importantly, the use of peer facilitators has a greater impact systematically in integrating the knowledge institutionally and achieve longer term impact of applying knowledge into action.