In an article in Forbes, Healthcare Anchor Network member RWJBarnabas Health’s President and CEO Barry H. Ostrowsky and Michellene Davis, Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, write about four ways that large scale corporations can begin to promote an anchor institution approach.
They point out that “COVID-19 has underscored the fact that band-aid solutions cannot undo systemic barriers. The economic crisis has disproportionately impacted minority-owned businesses in already disinvested communities.” Their call to action is that institutions “must go beyond diversity, inclusion, and corporate social responsibility” and “focus on being place conscious while applying an equity lens to ensure that they are both intentional and effective, and that they are advancing institutional changes to ensure sustainability.”