This #313Day, Detroit is NOWINCLUDED

Detroit is home. Growing up there just felt different. I was surrounded by love and support, knew some of the best people ever, and respected everyone I crossed paths with – a picture often not painted when you hear about Detroit in traditional media outlets. I have a sense of pride and love for the city that hasn’t been felt by any other city in which I’ve resided. So, when I was recently given a chance to lead new community activations in Detroit through my company, it felt like a full-circle moment.?

Growing up, I was most interested in making people as healthy as possible. That started as a dream to be a doctor, then I briefly imagined being an engineer and designing biomedical products, and sometime later I imagined a Ph.D. in pharmacology. I’ve maintained a passion for science and healthcare, but I wasn’t sure how I could make the greatest impact. Essentially, how could I work on the toughest problems to innovate the greatest solutions? I often teetered in the how but never shied away from the what.?

In my new role at Acclinate, I lead all things community. As a digital health company focused on accessing and engaging communities of color to help them make better-informed health decisions, inclusive of decisions about clinical research participation, my life purpose aligns with the company’s mission. I am working to scale our community so that people of color across cities and impacted by various conditions will benefit in ways yet to be actualized. So, when it came to jumpstarting our community engagement in Detroit, I was most excited about coming home to make an impact.?

And here’s what went down...

We invested all of our community dollars for this visit into Black-owned businesses, including everything from the location of the community meet-up to the photographers used. We held the meet-up at The Block, which is a Black-owned restaurant in midtown Detroit. We packed the restaurant with Black city residents interested in understanding how we can work together to improve health outcomes for the city. Residents who attended represented diverse organizations and employers in the city: the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Detroit employees, Henry Ford Hospital, Epic Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, local sorority and fraternity chapters, church members for Fellowship Chapel, Friendship Baptist, Hartford Memorial, and even leaders from various neighborhood block clubs like Rosedale and University District. Although this list doesn’t include all those present, it does show the range of people committed and engaged to making Detroit healthier.

Attendees shared their personal health stories and told us what they’d like to see for the health of the city. They also told us about their willingness to participate in clinical research and health topics of interest to them. A surprising 53% of people said they would be willing to participate in research, but many had never been presented with a trial. And while the topics of interest ran the gamut of health conditions, the top three mentioned were diabetes, hypertension, and mental health.?

While we gathered this and other insights from our brief event in Detroit, one thing stands true on this 313-day (a day dedicated to showing pride for the city), there is much work to be done to ensure all residents of Detroit are NOWINCLUDED in improved health outcomes. We are committed to investing back into the community to ensure our people are included. As we think of scaling our communities across the nation, I look forward to working with ambassadors and partners across communities to innovate solutions to bridge gaps of equity for people of color. Maybe you’ll be one of them??

Check out this video for highlights from our latest Detroit event.?