HOUSEAL-SMITH: Black Women Thriving East of the River

By Delia Houseal-Smith

In Wards 7 and 8, our community bears the weight of disinvestment and neglect, resulting in widespread poverty, chronic illnesses, unemployment, and high mortality rates among those living east of the Anacostia River. This neglect has also translated into a shortage of vital resources like public safety, affordable housing, quality education, and access to fresh food.

Almost four years ago, I discovered a potential path for change. I was invited to participate in an initiative called “Black Women Thriving East of the River.” This initiative sought to engage women from Wards 7 and 8 in brainstorming, creating, and implementing interventions to foster an environment where more women from our community could secure quality employment and effectively combat cancer. On a crisp autumn morning, November 22, 2019, I joined a diverse group of 28 women who gathered at Building Bridges Across the River, formerly known as THEARC, on Mississippi Avenue SE. We shared our life experiences, challenges, aspirations, and dreams. Our backgrounds and expertise spanned health care, community service, education, workforce development, and numerous other fields. We were doctors, nonprofit leaders, community activists, and much more. We were also mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and neighbors. Over nearly two years, we convened for numerous meetings.

I came to the District from South Carolina to attend Howard University.  After college in 2001, I moved to Ward 8.  I established a family in the District and moved to Ward 7 in 2018. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and died in 2020.  My motivation for the initiative stemmed from my mother’s battle with breast cancer. I hoped to uncover ways to improve her life and the lives of others like her.

What I experienced, surrounded by fellow Black women, was both profound and unique. While I had crossed paths with some of these women in the community before, this initiative allowed me to hear their stories and narratives that shared their pain, struggles, and moments of happiness. As someone working in the health field, managing a public health research firm, addressing health disparities was not new to me. However, what made this initiative different was the fact that it was coordinated by the Jane Bancroft Robinson Foundation (JBRF), and participants were compensated for their time. This was incredible and played a crucial role in building trust. For far too long, organizations had come to our community, extracting our knowledge and experiences but often failing to deliver effective solutions.

The Black Women Thriving East of the River initiative valued us, and our opinions were genuinely respected. It was a defining moment for many of us.

This initiative offered an opportunity to bring about tangible changes within the health care system, enabling mothers and families in Wards 7 and 8 to survive and thrive. It also presented an opportunity to guide women toward quality employment and successful careers.

We mobilized to dismantle inequitable systems by convening community leaders and those most affected in our neighborhoods. Through our initiative, we devised specific, actionable interventions to address the root causes of the barriers we faced. We formed workgroups to better understand challenges related to employment, economic mobility, and cancer-related illnesses and deaths. We charted paths toward solutions.

Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, we continued our work through in-person and online meetings. Our workgroups met at various locations, including the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center and the Anacostia Community Museum. From the outset, this endeavor harnessed the skills, resources, and talents of the exceptional individuals east of the river, from our consultants and vendors to catering chefs and meeting facilitators.

Ultimately, we created roadmaps for change, which involved analyzing the root causes of our problems, creating journey maps, prioritizing themes, designing interventions, conducting racial equity impact assessments, and engaging with stakeholders. At each step, our lived experiences guided our decision-making, and our stories as Black women with close ties to east of the river communities were integrated and prioritized.

Witnessing how our work has transformed into tangible action is incredibly gratifying.

This year, Nakeisha Neal Jones assumed the role of executive director of Black Women Thriving East of the River and began implementing the interventions. A Washington native who grew up in Wards 7 and 8, Jones is a collaborative leader with over 20 years of experience expanding access to education, workforce development, and housing resources for underrepresented families and youth. The initiative is gaining momentum, with JBRF pledging over $3 million in support and a $1 million grant from the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s Health Equity Fund.

For example, a scholarship fund for Black women has raised more than $300,000. These funds will be disbursed to women pursuing careers in health-related fields and other areas. A wide range of applicants will be considered, including those seeking licensing, stackable credentials, or professional certificates in medical transcription, community health, or as birth doulas. Also eligible are those pursuing post-secondary degrees in nursing, dentistry, medical research, physical therapy, and future doctors, surgeons, and dentists. Scholarship recipients will receive comprehensive case management support and be eligible for discretionary grant funds to address any obstacles to their success, such as child care, transportation, or program-related expenses like laptops or specialized software.

Additionally, a health careers resource map is in development, featuring an informative website to support women pursuing careers in health-related fields and beyond. The website will offer comprehensive career information, including training and support for various positions and career paths. Neal Jones is also collaborating with health care facility HR departments to understand their current and future staffing needs, creating a pipeline to guide Black women from east of the river toward these positions. Furthermore, they are developing a Cancer Patient Bill of Rights to remind women of their rights when navigating cancer.

Over time, additional components will be implemented, including programs to identify apprenticeship opportunities, an employer training series, cancer landscape analysis, cancer navigation training, cancer clinical trials training, anti-misogynoir training, a cancer Data Infrastructure Task Force, and more.

For women east of the river, change is finally within reach.

Delia Houseal-Smith is founder and CEO of NEAN Consulting, LLC, a public health and business management consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.