Community Collaborative

The community collaborative graphic of happy people raising their hands.

The Community Collaborative is a collective that centers the voice and perspective of community partners so that Washington State Department of Health (DOH) practices, programs and policies reduce health inequities and improve health outcomes for Black, Indigenous, communities of color and all Washingtonians.

Up-to-date information about the Collaborative, Collaborative workgroups, Collaborative newsletter and more is on the WA Portal website.

Our Focus Populations

The focus of this effort is to start to undo the harms on the following populations who, based on extensive research and data nationally, most negatively experience the generational, current, and longstanding impacts of racism and health inequities making it a public health crisis.

  • Black & Indigenous Communities - Descendants of enslaved Africans who continue to experience the ongoing and deep impacts of systemic racism in all its facets. Indigenous Peoples directly impacted by settler colonialism within the US continent & territories which have created vast health inequities for their communities. This includes American Indians/Native Alaskan/Native (AI/NA) and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islander (NH/PI) communities.
  • Immigrant & Refugee Communities – Our community members who experience xenophobic treatment and are alienated from culturally and linguistically responsive services due to their immigration status in the U.S.
  • Individuals with Disabilities – Our community members continue to face institutional and cultural discrimination due to their disabilities and are not afforded basic access provisions and accommodations.
  • Agricultural & Food Production Workers – Our community members who labor on our agricultural farms, on our meat farms, and in our seafood industry who experience harm working in often unsafe working conditions.
  • Queer & Trans Communities – Our communities who identify as Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Queer+ that experience systemic homophobia and transphobia and continue to struggle for basic health access and health services that treat them with dignity.
  • Youth & Elder Communities – Our young people and our elders who are often left out of key decision-making tables that impact their well-being where harmful policies are created without their active involvement.
  • Systems-Involved Communities – Our community members who are locked up in our prisons, detention centers and juvenile facilities without access to humane care.
  • Unhoused Members – Our relatives who continue to face marginalization due to skyrocketed housing costs rendering them housing insecure and vulnerable to physical, social, and systemic violence.
  • Rural Communities – Our communities in rural areas that lack the economic and political means and are often left out of critical health equity provisions due to the lack of resources in their jurisdiction.
Our Commitments
  • Build Authentic Relationships: We are committed to building relationships across sectors of government & community institutions that are focused on shared goals of achieving health equity.
  • Center Communities Most-Impacted: We believe that those who are closest to the issues are also closest to the solutions. The leadership of those, with lived experience, are most valuable in decision-making tables.
  • Focus on Solutions: We will address community-identified needs and implement recommendations to ensure equitable access to health resources and support policies that uplift health equity.
  • Lead with Transparency: We will ensure that community engagement is not an after thought but a lived practice based on accountability and ensuring that community is always brought in in all parts of our decision-making process.
Community Collaborative Session

This is a space where Collaborative members can connect with DOH staff to receive real time updates and share questions and concerns directly. They can also provide feedback on planning, outreach, and access efforts through virtual meetings and email/phone call follow up. We are also committed to creating space where Collaborative members can strengthen partnerships, share best practices and resources, facilitate networking, and build community with one another on a monthly basis.

The WA Portal website includes meeting notes, presentation slides and additional information from our monthly meetings of the Collaborative and its workgroups. Please visit the meetings section for past notes and the sign up page to get biweekly news of relevance to community-based organization partners across the state.

Past Sessions Archive

For meeting minutes, notes and presentation slides for meetings that have taken place after June 2023, please visit the WA Portal website.

June 21, 2023

May 17, 2023

February 22, 2023

September 7, 2022

July 6, 2022 June 1, 2022 May 4, 2022 April 27, 2022 March 2, 2022 February 2, 2022

Additional information