CHA celebrates Black History Month
Diversity is at the core of CHA's mission as we celebrate the varied backgrounds of our patients, staff and visitors.
By Avlot Quessa, Senior Director, Multicultural Affairs & Patient Services; Co-Chair, CHA DEI Council.
We create and foster a culture in which all feel valued and respected. CHA provides health care services to our patients regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status.
Each year we come together as a community to commemorate Black History Month with a series of events capped off by a special panel presentation welcome to all members of the community. The program is sponsored by the CHA DEI Council, a multidisciplinary group of employees who foster equity, inclusion, and excellence at CHA through educational programming, quality initiatives and systems improvement.
As part of the celebration, we were thrilled to welcome Noche Latina Dance Company to our hospital locations in Everett, Cambridge and Somerville for dance performances. They brought a diverse group of dancers who celebrated the multicultural backgrounds of the countries of South America, the Caribbean, and Africa.
On Thursday, February 28, we hosted a final event and presentation titled "Black Migration" following the year's theme outlined by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The motif highlights the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and social realities. Starting in the early years of the twentieth century, African American migration patterns included relocation from southern farms to southern cities and from the South to the Midwest, Northeast, and West.
CHA's panel was moderated by Claude-Alix Jacob, MPH, chief public health officer at the Cambridge Public Health Commission, and included Professor Patrick Sylvain, Ed.M., Harvard University, and MFA from Boston University, and Xenia Johnson Bhembe, MD, director of community minority affairs at CHA.
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