New Haven’s top governing body adopted a platform of dozens of recommendations to address systemic racism in the city.
The city’s Board of Aldermen declared racism a public health crisis after the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last summer.
Darryl Brackeen Jr. is a New Haven alderman.
“It literally took hundreds of years to get us to this point to undo systematic racism within our government and city. And while it certainly won’t take us that long to undo it, we want to ensure that we are taking the initial right steps to address racism as a public health issue head-on,” Brackeen said.
The recommendations include diversity training for city staff and COVID-19 vaccine outreach in Black and brown communities.
“Black and brown communities are more likely to experience poor health outcomes because of inequities in economic stability, education, physical environment, food and health care,” Brackeen said.
The platform would also push Yale-New Haven Hospital’s community benefits program to intentionally direct money toward predominantly neighborhoods of color.
