Initiatives > Equity Council

Equity Council

Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo’s COVID-19 Equity Council is an advisory council that was created to ensure that the State’s emergency response and recovery strategies address the specific needs of the communities most impacted by the pandemic. These communities include communities of color, high density areas and low-income neighborhoods.

Mission

The Equity Council aims to actively shape the State’s COVID-19 response to effectively serve the populations most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including communities of color and high-density communities, in tangible ways. The Council also highlights the importance of equity considerations in all State operations, both in response to the current pandemic and beyond.

Vision

It is our vision that we not only recover from the current pandemic but work together to fight systemic racism and injustice. The Equity Council is key to establishing lasting connections between underrepresented communities and State agencies.

Membership

The Equity Council consists of a diverse mix of community leaders of color, elected officials and State staff committed to the work that leads to meaningful action and change. Community leaders include non-profit staff, faith community leaders and doctors from high-density areas. Equity Council members are appointed by Governor Gina Raimondo.

Click here for the last updated list of Equity Council members.

History

The COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd highlighted the racial inequities that communities of color face, both in Rhode Island and in the United States.
Governor Raimondo established the Latino Advisory Group in April 2020, as a response to the high impact of COVID-19 on the Latino community. In May 2020, the focus and membership of the group was expanded to include representatives from all underrepresented communities, forming the existing Equity Council.

Focus Areas

The Equity Council’s focus is to address the most urgent needs of underrepresented communities in Rhode Island. Equity council members have worked on:

Improving access to basic health & safety resources
Providing access to culturally relevant services and programs
Ensuring communities of color are reached through culturally competent State communications
Ensuring equitable COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and data strategies
Ensuring the representation of communities and leaders of color in State decisions
Highlighting equity as a necessary component of the State’s COVID-19 response

For further information on member-led programs and initiatives, please visit the Equity Council’s September 2020 Progress Report.

Meeting Minutes

The Equity Council meets virtually twice a month. The Council previously met once a week. The actionable minutes from previous meetings are available below.

In the Media

The State of Rhode Island has been nationally recognized for its efforts to make equitable practices an essential part of its COVID-19 emergency response.

Equitable Recovery Strategies (State Health and Value Strategies): “Rhode Island’s recovery plan – Reopening Rhode Island – incorporates equity into its gating requirement goals, including a provision that the state ensures that all communities have access to testing, particularly communities who have been disproportionately impacted. As the state works to address COVID-19 and consider reopening plans, Governor Raimondo has also assembled an Equity Council comprised of state officials, advocacy partners, and health experts.”
How the Smallest State Engineered a Big COVID Comeback (Politico): “Well, from the beginning, we’ve had a genuine equity lens across our COVID response. Very early on we had a Latino advisory group, an equity advisory group, and we’ve really been on it in high-density communities, immigrant communities.”
Reducing the Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 Among Communities of Color (National Governors Association): “Gina M. Raimondo’s plan for reopening Rhode Island includes six core indicators, including, ‘do we have necessary supports in place for vulnerable populations and for anyone in quarantine?’ The Governor has also established an Equity Council to guide the state’s reopening plan.”
Secretary Jones moderates a panel on "Diversity in the Workplace" at the R.I.S.E. Women's Leadership Conference (Video)
Secretary Jones joins Johnson & Wales University's Media & Politics Café on The Politics of Pandemics: Communities of Color and Disproportionate Impacts, from HIV/AIDS to the Coronavirus Crisis (Video)
What’s in a Name: Starting Wednesday, RI votes will decide fate of the word ‘plantations (The Providence Journal): “Womazetta Jones had been on the job a short time last year as Rhode Island’s secretary of health and human services when she electronically checked to make sure her first paycheck had been properly deposited. There it was in her account, a direct payment from ‘The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations…’ ‘A word that is associated with cruelty and torture, death, rape. I wondered if by receiving those dollars I was condoning that hatred we as a people had experienced.’ In this year’s election, which begins with early voting starting Wednesday, voters will consider what’s in a name. If passed, Question 1 on the ballot would remove “and Providence Plantations” from all official state references.”
RI Foundation launches $8.5M Equity Leadership Initiative to tackle racial disparities (ConvergenceRI): “Womazetta Jones was introduced as the new Secretary of the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services on Aug. 22, 2019, at a reception at the Rhode Island Foundation, she said: ‘We have to get comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations about racial equity.’“
Engaging Staff to Be Equity-Minded: A Conversation with Public Sector Leaders (National Association of Medicaid Directors): “I am very blessed to be leading our equity work here in Rhode Island and our equity council, which is made up of all of our communities of color — actual people in the community — not just organized stakeholders. We need to look at how we’re creating that space. I need to push, but I need to have partners with me helping in that journey — individuals of color should lead in this equity space. We need all people in this space as a part of our leadership team.”