Erie, Pennsylvania, was ranked the worst city in the United States for black people. This label was according to an article published by 24/7 Wall Street in 2017. One quote from the article said, “No major metropolitan area has greater racial inequalities across major social and economic outcome measures than Erie, Pennsylvania.”
The Chief Administrative Officer, Gary N. Lee, had this to say in response to that label, “That was eight years ago, now fast forward, we are making better investments and we are growing Erie for everyone.”
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In 2021, Erie County Council created the Erie County Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, or diverse Erie for short. Their mission is to provide support for people of color by investing in initiatives that improve equality. On Friday morning, they awarded a combined total of 650,000 dollars to four locally based organizations.
One of the organizations awarded, called Birth Root, specializes in addressing racial disparities in maternal health. “Our doulas, they’re trained in birth bereavement and post-partum care, so we are here for whatever your need is, we’re just here to help reduce black maternal mortality and morbidity rates in Erie county alone our babies are dying at twice the rate of the white babies, so we are here to reduce that…What we plan to do with the grant is to grow our workforce and our programming here at Birth Root,” said Rachel Barnes, Birth Right Director of Operations. Birth Right was awarded $189,250.
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