Affinity Health Center (AHC) has adopted a 2-Year Equity Action Plan!!!

The action plan adopted comprises of 50 strategies within 4 Goal Areas including Leadership & Governance, Workforce Equity, Health Equity, and Community Engagement & Outreach.

AHC’s Equity Action Plan is intended to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in our operations, foster a more inclusive and equitable culture, and improve outcomes for all people that have a relationship with Affinity. This plan reestablishes our Board of Director’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as the Board, for multiple years, has adopted Health Equity and DEI as a Strategic Goal in the organization’s Operational Plan. The process of creating the Equity Action Plan was led by the agency’s Chief Equity and People Officer (CEPO) and its Chief Executive Offer (CEO). Furthermore, the strategies created in the plan are based on feedback provided from AHC staff, patients, community partners, and the consulting work of a local non-profit organization called Civic Canvas.

Civic Canvas is a social & organizational impact bilingual boutique consulting firm whose framework incorporates a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lens in its strategic planning process. In 2021, Affinity Health Center was awarded a grant from the Southern HIV Impact Fund, a project funded by Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, and The Levi Strauss Foundation and managed by AIDS United. AIDS United’s sole mission is to end the HIV epidemic in the United States. It does this through capacity building, policy advocacy, and strategic grant-making. AIDS United centers those communities hardest hit by the HIV epidemic, including gay and bisexual men, communities of color, women, people living in the Deep South, and people living with HIV. Funds received through this grant were used to support the consulting services of Civic Canvas.

The services provided by Civic Canvas enabled Affinity Health Center to have additional information from its stakeholders to be used in consideration when drafting strategies aimed to their benefit. The strategies outlined in the Equity Action Plan will be implemented during the 2023 & 2024 calendar years.