We stand with our community partners in declaring racism a public health emergency

A Message from President Judy Peterson:

As Home Health & Hospice’s ongoing work around diversity, equity and inclusion demonstrates, we stand with the City of Burlington and other community partners in declaring racism a public health emergency. We continue working within our organization, and throughout our community, to eliminate race-based health disparities and systemic racism here in Chittenden County.

While we missed the first iteration of Burlington’s proclamation, issued last week, we look forward to joining the next. At the same time, please be assured that, as an organization, our commitment to honoring diversity and assuring equity and inclusion goes well beyond adding our name to future proclamations. Our work includes raising the Black Lives Matter flag at Prim Road, issuing a statement on the death of George Floyd, joining The UVM Health Network in performing a network-wide assessment of racial inequities in our system, and engaging all of you in our efforts.

These efforts include upcoming employee surveys, a leadership listening tour, and agency-wide anti-bias training. Senior leaders and I participated in one of these trainings last month; it was first in a series the network plans to provide to all staff over the next several years.

Please know that our efforts to promote positive change at Home Health & Hospice and within our community are continuing on multiple fronts. Thank you for your ongoing support of this very important work.

Sincerely,
Judy

Judy Peterson
President and Chief Operating Officer
The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice