Welcome to Conversations With the Winners.
Today our conversation is with D. Rashaan Gilmore.
Rashaan is the founder of BlaqOut in Kansas City, Missouri.
He is also a winner of the 2020 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Award for Health Equity.
Welcome Rashaan.
Jacinta, thanks so much for having me today,
honored to be here.
Let's get started by first,
you telling us about BlaqOut.
In brief, BlaqOut is a movement organization
of, by, and for the Black LGBTQ community here
in Kansas City and beyond.
Rashaan, let's talk a bit about health equity.
What are the issues and challenges of health equity that
impact the community you serve?
That's an excellent question Jacinta,
really there are several and they're layered
and they're interconnected.
In this space we talk a lot about
social determinants of health, but at BlaqOut,
we approached that a little bit differently.
We see our focus as being on empowering our community members,
and so we think of these more as social influencers,
and certainly as we've seen throughout the past year and a half
with the COVID pandemic,
racism is a factor in health care and it is a big factor
in exacerbating health inequities, and so that is one.
Other things like housing and employment, education,
those sorts of things, really impact and impede a community's
ability to achieve better health outcomes,
and that's what we're here to help improve.
You've taken a creative approach
to access to care,
tell us a little bit about that.
That looks a variety of different ways,
but one of the ways in which we do that is how we approach
community outreach.
And, we cannot expect that if we build it, they will come.
I can tell you for a fact it's already built and they're not
coming to the traditional environments where they don't feel
like the care is reflective of their cultural needs or of
their personal needs.
So what BlaqOut has done, is really take the care
to the community
instead of waiting for the community to come to us.
And that happens in a variety of different ways,
including in our BlaqOut balls,
which play a huge part in bringing community together.
We understood a long time ago that because there's not
physical space for us in this community,
to be able to gather in a way that we feel like truly
represents and reflects our needs and our cultural values,
we have to take the care to the community.
And what that looks like is having HIV testing at our balls,
having access to PrEP at our balls,
and also making sure that there's information about
additional health care access that's available to the
community on demand.
We are the only place in this entire region where you can
come to a BlaqOut event.
And in one step, just by showing up,
you can gain access to PrEP,
which is a once a day pill that prevents contraction of HIV.
That is something that's entirely unique
in this entire region.
Talk to us a little bit about what it
takes to usher in change.
That's a really complicated question,
and I'll try to give a succinct answer because it's such an
important question.
Systems change, community change,
requires leadership from the ground up,
but it also requires visionary determination.
I think it will be all too easy to assume that you can just
identify a problem and then go about trying to solve it.
What has been core to the work and to the degree that
anybody would grant us
the success that BlaqOut has had,
has been that we have been solidly focused on our vision.
And even though we can read practical signs that may say,
danger, or that won't work,
we were convinced of our own, not rightness,
but our own conviction that we were onto something.
And that we would figure it out, as we went along.
Some might say that we were building the plane
as we flew it, but in our minds,
we were already on a rocket ship and we knew what our destination was.
We were convinced that we could get there if we just had
the right people,
the right tools and the right mindset to get us there.
And I have to say that while I may be the recipient,
the honored recipient of this award,
it really belongs to everybody that's a part of Blaqout
from our board, to our staff, to our community members.
And if I didn't do anything else,
if I left this work today,
the most important thing that I did was create a pipeline for leadership.
Creating other visionaries who will carry on the work no
matter what happens to me, that to me,
is how you create systems change.
There's a new model of care
that you have ushered in.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
The BlaqOut Vision 2020 study,
which was conducted in partnership with the University of Missouri
Kansas City School of Medicine,
and their community health research group
really focused on understanding at the most basic level,
what were all of the needs of our community members
that impacted their health care.
And so for us,
we took the findings from the Vision 2020 study
and developed what we call
The BlaqOut Whole Health Access Model.
The BlaqOut Whole Health Access Model is really designed to
provide comprehensive, collaborative care to our community members.
What that looks like is providing 24 hour a day,
365 days a year,
access to providers from anywhere in the country.
That's a big deal for a community of people who don't often
feel comfortable going into certain clinical environments,
where they don't feel like they'll be received or be
treated with proper respect and care.
That's one aspect of it,
but it's also looking at how do we provide access to mental
health for our community members,
also providing connectivity, and making sure that we provide
trainings for providers
And so this nucleus really is the origin of the work that
we're doing now, whether it's around PrEP,
mental health or other related health care access needs.
Basically we've put the health care consumer in the driver's seat,
And what that looks like at BlaqOut is we actually work
with every single member of the community that we serve
to create an individualized care plan.
Rashaan, we can learn so much from you
and the work that you've done at BlaqOut.
Share with us a few lessons learned.
A few things Jacinta, one is that you have to
meet people where they are and move them from there.
Another thing is, sometimes it's controversial,
but for us,
it has been a godsend when it comes to staying focused on
what our mission and vision is.
That is to say this,
we don't believe in feckless defiance,
but we do practice strategic resistance.
And so every opportunity that comes along is not the right
or best opportunity.
The third thing I would say is this,
not everybody is going to agree,
and we're all in this fight together.
No one group or individual can do it all.
Find your lane, find whichever finger you are,
you're part of the whole, do your part,
trust others to do their part, work with them,
to do their part,
but know that you've got to fulfill your part in this goal,
otherwise it won't happen,
and we are all interdependent on each other.
What would equity look like
for the community you serve?
That there is absolute certitude,
by every single community member,
that they would get the best care at the highest
level each and every time they show up with a need,
each and every time they identify an area of opportunity
where things can be improved.
Their voice will be heard, they will be listened to,
and those plans enacted.
Health equity, and it is important that we distinguish
between equality and equity.
Health equity is making sure that each person has what they
need to be successful and thrive.
That's where we have to start this work,
and that's where we have to end this work.
And what have you learned about the
power of the community you serve through the model
that you operate at BlaqOut?
I get excited at that question
because it's really summed up in one word, resiliency.
If we didn't find anything else,
what we've found was a community that despite racism and discrimination,
that despite lack of access, to our lack of access
to health care, sometimes low wage jobs,
these sorts of things,
what was inherent in each and every person that took our
study, and that's a part of BlaqOut to this day,
is that there is a strong spirit within each of them,
to rise above their circumstances to live their best lives,
and BlaqOut is absolutely here to help them do just that.
As we come to a close to our discussion today,
any thought that you would like to leave us with?
I'm reminded of the words of Toni Morrison,
who in speaking about being an author said once that if the
book that you want to read is not out there,
it's because you're supposed to write it.
If you see a need in your community,
that's not being met, just perhaps, it's up to you
to be the one to initiate the change that you seek.
Rashaan, thank you for your leadership,
your advocacy, and for sharing these important insights
with us today.
On behalf of AIDS United and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
congratulations on your award.
Jacinta, this has been a great pleasure for me.
I'm so thankful to you and your team,
the great folks at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for
the Health Equity award, and to my friends at AIDS United
for nominating me, it's just been a great privilege,
thank you so kindly.
Thank you for joining us for this conversation,
and you are invited to more conversations with the 2020
winners of the RWJF Award for Health Equity.
And you can learn more about all of the winners at RWJF.org.
I'm Jacinta Gauda and thank you for watching.