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Race Matters Follow-up Conference
June 6, 2006
Meeting Notes
NEXT MEETING: July 12, 2006;
2:30 pm to 4:30 pm at
United Way of Central NM offices
2340 Alamo SE
2nd floor conference room
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About 35 people showed up for the first follow-up meeting
after the May 23 Race Matters conference to discuss policy suggestions
to pursue toward greater racial equity in New Mexico. Participants
self-selected into working groups: race and media; child welfare;
juvenile justice; youth access to behavioral health care; adolescent
reproductive health.
We had some preliminary discussions about the interim session of
the legislature, and presenting some of the Race Matters material
to legislative interim committees. Many of the committees have set
their summer schedule, but we believe that we can persuade them to
hear a presentation by people who attended the conference and want
to pursue policy changes. We will discuss this more at the next meeting.
NM Voices commits to helping get a hearing before a committee scheduled,
and in helping to prepare community members to make the presentation
by preparing materials and talking points. It would be important to
have as many people at that presentation as possible.
We also decided that we'd start the next meeting with a discussion
of what we mean by "racism".
[Notes from the scribe: This is just a reminder that we're looking
at structural racism, and not individual bias or discrimination.
Structural racism is policies and practices that, when implemented,
create an advantage for white people and a disadvantage of people
of color. We're especially focused structural racism and how it
impacts youth of color in these discussions].
The working groups did not complete the work to come up with definite
policy objectives, but did important work establishing a foundation
for future discussions.
Race and media. The group decided that they want youth at
the next meeting. They would like to see a project that involved youth
looking at the print and broadcast media in NM, and evaluating how
young people of color are represented. Then, they think the youth
should be supported in a follow-up meeting with NM journalists and
media to present their findings and ask for a more balanced approach
to reporting on youth of color.
[Notes from the scribe: If we are able to do this, one idea
would be to ask to the Broadcasters Association to allow youth to
make a presentation at their annual meeting, which is usually in
the fall. This would be a project that could be a collaboration
with the Media Literacy project].
Child welfare. This group wants to invite someone from the
Children Youth and Families Department to the next meeting. They need
more information on possible ways to work with CYFD to develop a better
relationship with this agency, which has the primary responsibility
for the state's child welfare system. Cultural competency of CYFD
social workers was discussed. Other issues raised were the lack of
social worker supervisors that are African American, no training for
adoptive foster parents offered by CYFD, no recruitment of foster
parents of color, especially African American foster parents. The
group wants to discuss these issues with CYFD personnel.
[Notes from the scribe: NM Voices will invite CYFD personnel
to the July meeting].
Juvenile justice. Cultural diversity training and awareness
needs to happen across the entire juvenile justice system. In addition,
the group recommended a study of juvenile sentencing patterns across
the state because there may be differences in sentencing for white
juveniles who have committed the same offense and have the same juvenile
justice history compared to youth of color.
Adolescent reproductive health. Expand the public health clinic
hours of operation to evenings and weekend, making access easier for
youth of color. The Department of Health/Department of Public Health
has developed standards on age appropriate sex education. These standards
have not been adopted and implemented by school districts. The school
districts are governed by elected school boards that set school policy
for the districts. Nonetheless, the group believes that there could
be legislative action to insure that the Public health standards are
adopted by schools. There was recognition that this will require funding
for the schools to insure that there are competent health educators.
The group also discussed the soon-to-be-released HPV vaccine. HPV
(human Pupilloma virus) is a group of viruses. Some cause genital
warts, and are low risk, but others in this group are high risk because
they are associated with cervical cancer. In addition, smoking enhances
the risk that a woman infected with high risk HPV will develop cervical
cancer. Young women of color are at very high risk because they smoke
more than their white counterparts, and because they have less access
to health education that could prevent HPV and detect early stage
cervical cancer. The group recommended that HPV be added to the state's
list as a reportable disease. This means that the state's medical
director could decide that, as a public health risk, HPV vaccine is
mandatory just like other mandated vaccines. Young people, and especially
young people of color, would benefit from this vaccination.
[Notes from the scribe: This is likely to be a topic that will
cause much debate from conservatives. Keeping the discussion rooted
in public health will help. Perhaps the Race Matters working group
could send a letter to the state's medical officer asking that HPV
be added as a reportable state disease, and mandating the vaccine.
This could be discussed further at the next meeting].
Access to behavioral health. This working group developed
a long statement about access to behavioral health services for youth
of color:
Vision Statement
This body seeks to reduce the negative impact of programs that lead
to unintended consequences by supporting policies and programs that
include elements of anti-racism education and training. Therefore,
we advocate behavioral health policies that spell out 'zero tolerance'
for disproportional findings, disparities, inequities or inequalities
in health, human services and education. Overall, we endorse the use
of 'disruptive innovations' and strategies for improvements in community
empowerment, and distribution of resources (social justice) along
a spectrum of prevention.
Part of the discussion was that there should be zero tolerance for
inequities in behavioral health. In addition, the group expressed
concerns about the pending transfer of behavioral health to Value
Options, which will be the single provider (subcontracting with other
providers) of behavioral health services in the state. This consolidation
was intended to make behavioral health access more affordable and
easier, but many are concerned that the outcome will be fewer services,
especially the kinds of out-patient, group home and residential treatment
services less accessible. These services are needed by youth of color
more than for white youth because youth of color are disproportionately
impacted y the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Fewer treatment
options will impact their access to behavioral health.
[Notes from the scribe: We need the more detailed statement
from this group about their work].
All participants agreed to continue to meet and work toward policy
goals and a strategy to educate the public and policymakers about
those goals. It was also recommended that we work toward wider inclusion
of people from other parts of the state in our Race Matters discussions.
