Grant: Team Grant: STEPS - Strengthening Public Health Systems in British Columbia

Settler population and public health organizations' efforts to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples, eradicate racism, and work towards truth and reconciliation are not a matter of benevolence - they are required by provincial federal and international law. We have hundreds of recommendations from reports like the Truth & Reconciliation Commission and others. Still, we choose not to implement these life-saving solutions, resulting in ongoing health inequities for Indigenous communities in British Columbia and Canada. There is a lack of evidence on the best way to treat the widespread problem of Indigenous-specific racism to advance reconciliation. Guided by Indigenous people's wisdom and directives, we aim to understand how we can eliminate racism from the public health system. This question forms the core of our proposed work, in collaboration with key provincial public health organizations: First Nations Health Authority, BC Centre for Disease Control, BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer, and the Provincial Health Services Authority. Our collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous public health leaders and scholars will undertake 3 core practices - learn, understand, act outlined by Puglaas Jody Wilson-Raybould (We Wai Kai Nation) in her True Reconciliation Framework. We aim to learn how BC's public health is doing in upholding its reconciliation obligations and monitor progress over time; understand what is working well to advance reconciliation in public health; and act to create a framework for more meaningful reconciliation in public health systems. We will provide clear guidance for public health leaders through a series of case studies and a framework for action. We will also test a tool to monitor public health's reconciliation progress over time. Our work can serve as a model for public health systems elsewhere.