Population Health Institute
Translating Research for Policy and Practice

Sign-on: Racism is a Public Health Crisis in Wisconsin

Years of work led by grassroots groups, community-based organizations, government agencies, academic leaders, and many others have laid a strong foundation to address racial inequities in Wisconsin. In October 2017, the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) Group, of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, convened statewide partners at the inaugural Healthiest State Agenda Setting Meeting. The convening supported the collective identification of six statewide health equity priorities, one of which was to declare racism a public health emergency. In May 2018, the Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA) passed a resolution declaring that racism is a public health crisis in Wisconsin and committed to taking action. Building on this work, several partner organizations have worked together to transfer the WPHA resolution content to this Racism is a Public Health Crisis Sign-On. The goal is for organizations and individuals to sign-on to the declaration and commit to actions that are tailored to their specific contexts.

Sign the Declaration

We agree that Racism is a Public Health Crisis and commit to take urgent action because:

  • Race is a social construction with no biological basis.
  • Racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal and systemic racism is institutional or structural, and is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources.
  • Racism causes persistent racial discrimination in housing, education, employment and criminal justice, and an emerging body of research demonstrates that racism is a social determinant of health.
  • More than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes.
  • In Wisconsin, the highest excess death rates exist for African Americans and Native Americans at every stage in the life course and our infant mortality rate for infants of non-Hispanic black women is the highest in the nation.
  • The American Public Health Association (APHA) launched a National Campaign Against Racism.
  • Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 states that, “Wisconsin must address persistent disparities in health outcomes and the social, economic, educational and environmental inequities that contribute to them.”
  • Public health’s responsibilities to address racism include reshaping our discourse and agenda so that we all actively engage in racial justice work.
  • While there is no epidemiological definition of “crisis,” the health impact of racism clearly rises to the definition proposed by Galea: “The problem must affect large numbers of people, it must threaten health over the long-term, and it must require the adoption of large scale solutions.”

Declaration Language and Action Commitments 

See the WPHA Resolution for full declaration and citations.

(See also the Racism and Health Suggested Resources from the Wisconsin Public Health Association.)

Organizational Signers and Actions List

As of September 9, 2021, the following organizations have signed on to the Racism is a Public Health Crisis in Wisconsin Declaration:

  • Access Community Health Centers
  • Access Midwifery, LLC
  • Achieve Brown County
  • ACLU of Wisconsin
  • AES Consulting Firm
  • Aging and Disability Professionals Association of Wisconsin (ADPAW)
  • Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County
  • Appleton Health Department
  • The Arc Wisconsin
  • Bellin Health Systems, Inc.
  • Birthing Project USA – Southeast Wisconsin
  • Boys and Girls Club of Greater Green Bay
  • Boys and Girls Clubs of Sheboygan County
  • Brown County Oral Health Partnership
  • Brown County United Way
  • Campus Compact for Wisconsin
  • Casa ALBA Melanie Hispanic Community Resource Center of Green Bay
  • Center for Applied Theatre
  • Center for Community Healing
  • Center for Patient Partnerships
  • Center for Resilient Cities
  • Center of Urban Population Health
  • Central Rivers Farmshed, Inc.
  • City of Appleton
  • City of Green Bay
  • City of Madison
  • Collaborative Center for Health Equity, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • The Community-Academic Aging Research Network
  • Community Relations Social Development Commission
  • County of Brown
  • Crusaders Of Justicia
  • Dane County Health Council
  • Dean Health Plan
  • Democratic Party of Wisconsin
  • EQT By Design, LLC
  • Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin
  • Florence County Health Department
  • Gateway Technical College
  • Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, Inc.
  • Green Bay Area Public School District
  • Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin
  • healthTIDE
  • iLoveKickboxing
  • JONAH of the Chippewa Valley
  • Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Journey Mental Health Center
  • Kenosha County Democratic Party
  • Kenosha County Division of Health
  • Kenosha County Division of Workforce Development
  • Kids Forward
  • La Clinica de los Campesinos, Inc., Family Health La Clinica
  • Latter-Day Saint Student Association (LDSSA)
  • Lumos Doula Services, LLC
  • Madison Metropolitan School District
  • Maroon Calabash
  • Meadowood Health Partnership
  • Medical College of Wisconsin
  • Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Family & Community Medicine
  • Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Rural Medicine Interest Group
  • Middleton Outreach Ministry
  • Milwaukee County
  • Milwaukee Men’s Health Referral Network
  • Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH), UW Population Health Institute
  • Morgridge Center for Public Service
  • Motivf Corporation
  • NAACP Wisconsin Conference of Branches
  • N.E.W. Community Clinic
  • Ninjas for Health
  • Nurturing Diversity Partners (Jackson-Kaplan Consulting LLC)
  • One Dream Team GB
  • OutReach LGBTQ Community Center
  • Parents Advocating for Greendale Equity
  • Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin
  • The Privilege Institute
  • Public Health Madison and Dane County
  • Quartz
  • Racine Educators United
  • Richland FIT
  • The Road Home Dane County
  • RSVP of Dane County, Inc.
  • Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured
  • Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program
  • SSM Health – St. Mary’s Hospital
  • SSM Health – Wisconsin Region
  • Stable Life, Inc.
  • St. Joe’s Accountability Coalition
  • St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter
  • Timpano Group
  • UBUNTU Research & Evaluation
  • Ujima United
  • United for Diversity, Fond du Lac County
  • United Way of Dane County
  • Unity Point Health – Meriter
  • University Health Services, UW-Madison
  • University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center
  • University of Wisconsin Division of Extension Human Development and Relationships Institute
  • University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, College of Nursing & Health Sciences
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Health and Well Being Institute
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute
  • University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
  • University of Wisconsin Prevention Research Center
  • University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
  • Urban League of Racine and Kenosha
  • UW Division of Extension
  • UW Extension African American Employee Resource Group
  • UW Health
  • UW Health Innovation Program
  • UW ICTR Neighborhood Health Partnerships Program
  • UW-Madison Master of Public Health Program
  • UW-Madison Master of Public Health Student Organization
  • UW Preventive Medicine Residency Program
  • Vivent Health
  • Volunteer Center of Brown County
  • Wauwatosa Health Department
  • We All Rise: African American Resource Center, Inc.
  • WellFirst Health
  • Wello
  • West Allis Health Department – Board of Health
  • Wingra School
  • Winnebago County Health Department
  • Wisconsin Aging Advocacy Network (WAAN)
  • Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health
  • Wisconsin Area Health Education Centers (AHEC)
  • Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards (WALHDAB)
  • Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WIAAP)
  • Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault
  • Wisconsin Counties Association
  • Wisconsin Environmental Health Network
  • Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice
  • Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
  • Wisconsin Guild of Midwives (WGOM)
  • Wisconsin Health Literacy, A Division of Wisconsin Literacy, Inc.
  • Wisconsin Health Professionals For Climate Action
  • Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce
  • Wisconsin Mujer, LLC
  • Wisconsin Office of Rural Health
  • Wisconsin Partnership Program
  • Wisconsin Physicians for a National Health Program
  • Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA)
  • Wisconsin Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Association
  • Wood County WIC
  • Wood County Health Department
  • YWCA Greater Green Bay
  • YWCA Madison

Who:  Individuals and Organizations who have signed on to the Racism is a Public Health Crisis Declaration

What:  Calls and resources to support the growing community of practice, focused on topics such as:

    • Challenges and successes on the action steps laid out in the Declaration sign-on  
    • Learning from organizations committed to racial equity, anti-racist practices, and health equity 
    • Emerging topics across Wisconsin

How: Sign-on to the Declaration to receive communication about Community of Practice

Spotlight: Check out the recording from the “Racism is a Public Health Crisis…and what we can do about it” pre-conference session done in collaboration with Toward One Wisconsin:

Racism Declaration Action Toolkit 

The purpose of this toolkit is to provide resources that aid organizational action to advance racial equity. This includes resources that can support your organization in signing on to the Racism Declaration, as well as resources organized into categories based on the action steps listed in the Declaration. Please note that these action steps are not listed in a chronological order; depending on your journey, you may enter the work at any of these action steps.

Resources to Support Signing On

Getting Leadership Buy-In:

*These resources make a financial case for diversity and inclusion, which may or may not be appropriate for your strategy. We welcome conversation about this, as well as discussion on identifying tools that meet your values and needs more generally, in the Racism Declaration Community of Practice. 

Resources for Racism Declaration Actions

Action Step Resources
Publicly assert that racism is a public health crisis
affecting our entire society.
Conduct an assessment of internal policy and procedures
to ensure racial equity is a core element of our work.
Work to create an equity and justice oriented organization,
with staff, and/or other stakeholders identifying specific
activities to increase diversity and to incorporate anti-racism
principles within leadership, staffing, and contracting.
Incorporate educational efforts to address and dismantle
racism, expand understanding of racism, and how
racism affects individual and population health.
Provide tools to engage actively and authentically
with communities of color.
Advocate for relevant policies that improve health in
communities of color, and support local, state, and federal
initiatives that advance social justice, while also encouraging
individual advocacy to dismantle systematic racism.
Work to build alliances and partnerships with other
appropriate organizations that are confronting racism
and encourage partners and/or stakeholders to recognize
racism as a public health crisis.
Allocate adequate financial and human resources to
accomplish all selected activities.