A group of about a dozen people pose together on a city street, some standing and some crouching in front, with utility poles and buildings behind them.

Mission Statement

The BEC supports equitable systems that advance justice and affirm the dignity of every human-being by building and strengthening strategic collaborations and networks through advocacy. To achieve this, the BEC utilizes the expertise of social scientists, physicians, health care professionals, epidemiologists, public health practitioners, funders, government officials, business and education leaders, researchers, and community advocates to address inequities that structural racism and oppression have on the health, well-being, growth, and economic stability of underserved communities.

Vision Statement

The BEC strengthens and supports our neighborhoods that are: 

  • A Model of Collaboration, Partnership, and Innovation 
  • Uniquely Diverse, Beautiful, Vibrant and Connected
  • Reinvesting Culturally, Spiritually, and Economically 
  • Creating the Best Opportunity for Everyone to Live, Learn, Work, Worship, and Play
Two smiling young women stand behind a food vendor’s counter under a blue tent at an outdoor festival.

Approach

We seek to establish a co-leadership coordinated collaborative strategic partnership model, using clustered social determinants of health as identifiers to target needed wrap-around services through community partners including: nonprofits, businesses, religious organizations, community ambassadors, healthcare, education, government and philanthropy.

History

Due to a lack of an equitable and just response to the coronavirus pandemic by regional government and health authorities, a group of Black leaders came together to form the Black Equity Coalition. The group was united by a shared passion and urgency to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Black community and then proceeded to develop equitable strategies, opportunities, and actions necessary to improve the lived experience of Black people in the Pittsburgh region and beyond. The coalition designed culturally relevant responses to identify health, social, and economic inequities that quickly became evident as the virus spread and as morbidity and mortality increased disproportionately in the Black community. These actions resulted in recommendations for interventions, rapid solutions, and built capacity to address the inequitable identification and COVID-19 responses.

As the Black Equity Coalition achieved success in addressing the inequitable responses to the pandemic, it realized that its approach and coalition model could be used to address the impact that institutional and structural racism continue to have on the Black community, which existed prior to the pandemic. Thus, the Black Equity Coalition committed to working on matters of racial equity beyond the pandemic’s eventual end and evolved to address the breadth of SDoH.

Today, the coalition is led by a core team, The Huddle.

  • The Huddle Working Group is a cross-sector group of physicians, social scientists, researchers, epidemiologists, civic community leaders, and philanthropists that provide leadership support to the Black Equity Coalition, build viable connections, and fundraise to meet community needs.