Racial Ethnic Framing of Community-informed and Unifying Surveillance
What Is Project REFOCUS?
Project ReFocus is a thought experiment…
When the unimaginable happens, and the world falls into chaos, we are starkly reminded that the tiniest of viruses has an immeasurable effect on the well-being of the most vulnerable populations. In the US those populations are Black and Brown and otherly-abled communities. Covid-19 served as a much needed wake- up call to professionals and thought leaders alike to ask the daunting questions:
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
WHAT IF things were equitable? WHAT IF we could ReFrame the narrative of the “minority” population to one of acceptance, love, opportunity and equity? And how would we get there? Does anyone really know?
Project ReFocus began as a COVID initiative and quickly branched off into so many directions, that it was evident that a central focus would do this initiative a disservice. UCLA and Howard University have taken the exploratory stance on investigating how the BIPOC and otherly-abled communities have been effected by discrimination, racist laws, food and medical instabilities etc. As a holistic approach, our collective aim is to give tools and resources to those groups that have been intentionally excluded which has now created a crisis of unmatched proportion. A crisis that no one can fix but ourselves.