Strengthening Providers’ Capacity for Best Practices in African, Caribbean and Black Community Service Provision

Although large amounts of data from the United States shows that Black populations are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, there remains huge gaps in race-based data in Canada. Nevertheless, existing economic, social and health disparities indicate that Black populations in Canada will be similarly negatively affected by this pandemic.

This project was launched to collect evidence that will inform strategies on how to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in at-risk communities. The project will take place in both Toronto and Ottawa.  As well, the researchers involved with this project will work directly with African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities and health provider stakeholders to identify structural, institutional, community interpersonal and individual factors important for improving care amongst ACB communities. Furthermore, interviews with policy makers, ACB communities and healthcare providers (such as physicians, respiratory therapists, nurses and personal support workers) will be done to explore providers’ capacity for providing care to racialized communities. In addition, the challenges, successes and opportunities that ACB patients encounter in healthcare will also be explored. Surveys will be sent to healthcare providers inquiring about how they responded to the needs of ACB patients during the pandemic as well as their experiences serving ACB populations. Once the data has been collected and analyzed, ACB community leaders, healthcare providers and policy makers will be brought together to discuss the research findings and develop healthcare responses that target the vulnerabilities identified by the study. Educational materials, such as factsheets, podcasts and webcasts, based on the findings will also be made and distributed amongst the HiFi lab’s partners and website.