Greetings,

Last Fall, the Portland African American Leadership Forum, in conjunction with the Urban League of Portland, Albina Ministerial Alliance, Multnomah County, OHA Office of Equity and Inclusion and DHS Office of Equity and Multicultural Services, convened the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Human Services agency leadership and community members to participate in the second of two meetings, focused on how the State can work with the community to eliminate the disparities experienced by African Americans as outlined in the State of Equity Report. We want to thank both agencies for their leadership and for the opportunity to engage them in a dialogue, focused on creating accountability and inclusivity in state processes’ to ensure improved health outcomes for our community.

PAALF is pleased to announce that we will re-convene stakeholders to continue these discussions. The State of Equity Report: African American Third Community Reconvening will take place on November 4, from 8am-12pm at Maranatha Church – 422 NE 12th, Portland OR. At the event, PAALF will present a series of recommendations to Oregon Health Authority leaders and request their commitment to adopting them. We will conduct a separate event with the Department of Human Services sometime next year.

In preparation, we also request your attendance at a pre-event community planning meeting. At this meeting, we will review community feedback from the first two State of Equity Report convenings and work together, as a community, to develop the recommendations we would like to propose to agency leadership moving forward. The pre-planning meeting will take place on October 7, from 1pm-5pm at the June Key Delta Center – 5940 North Albina St., Portland, OR.

Please RSVP at this link: https://docs.google.com/a/aalfnw.org/forms/d/1ZQ9kny_1v8whBpQrx0Ee-_CkTmZgodCbagytWkWOLqA/viewform

Attached is a flyer for the event series. Please feel free to circulate it to other African American community members in your network.

Should you have any questions about these events, please contact Rachel Gilmer by email – Rachel@aalfnw.org or phone – 503.249.1721 ext. 230.

Thank you for ongoing commitment to improving the health of our community. We hope you will be able to join us for this vital opportunity to continue to ensure we are involved in decisions that impact our community.

Sincerely,

PAALF Staff and Leadership