About Us > Goals and Objectives

1. To build a statewide multicultural network to advance the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.
   
   Objective 1.1: Identify stakeholders committed to eliminating health disparities.
   
   Objective 1.2: Identify partners whose interests are aligned with Critical MASS’ mission.
   
   Objective 1.3: Create forums to bring stakeholders and partners together to plan, develop and implement strategies to eliminate health disparities.


2. To promote and improve the health and well being of racial, ethnic and immigrant and refugee populations.
   
   Objective 2.1: Identify existing policies that focus on eliminating health disparities and efforts in both the public and private sectors that support the elimination of health disparities
   
   Objective 2.2: Inventory current resources, best practices and identify gaps in policies, research and measures of health outcome.
   
   Objective 2.3: Develop a 5-year statewide plan to address the primary gaps identified above and recommend policies to close gaps in health outcome by race and ethnicity.


3. To coordinate Critical MASS with federal, regional, state, and local efforts to eliminate health disparities.
   
   Objective 3.1: Collect and disseminate information on activities across the state related to health disparities.
   
   Objective 3.2: Create linkages to regional activities including the New England Regional Minority Health Committee.


4. To identify, create, or encourage the development of mechanisms to track progress on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.
   
   Objective 4.1: Define key indicators to track progress on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.
   
   Objective 4.2: Evaluate progress regularly based upon key indicators.
   
   Objective 4.3: Identify public and private databases that quantify health outcomes as a way to track progress.


5. To promote, improve and increase the capacity of researchers and communities to develop and conduct community participatory research that includes racial, ethnic, refugee, and immigrant perspectives in the design and implementation.
   
   Objective 5.1: Identify criteria for conducting inclusive research and collaborate with researchers to disseminate.
   
   Objective 5.2: Identify criteria for conducting community participatory research.
   
   Objective 5.3: Collaborate with community-based partners to educate communities about the full range and benefits of research activities.
   
   Objective 5.4: Identify and advocate for the adoption of policies to support community participatory research, and promote the development of researchers that represent the study populations.

Core Operating Principles:

1. A body of evidence exits that identifies a relationship between race, ethnicity, language, national origin, and health status. The network seeks to foster the development of systems and mechanisms to maximize health status for all individuals and their respective communities.
   
   Race, ethnicity, language, national origin, and health status are connected. Critical MASS recognizes this connection and supports the development of systems designed to maximize health for all individuals and communities.
   



2. Shared understanding about the social determinants of health is critical to eliminating health disparities. By encouraging research that is inclusive of all populations, the network seeks to identify variables that contribute to the variances in health outcomes in Massachusetts.
   
   Without research we are unable to accurately describe the experience and status of different populations. The network seeks to identify factors that contribute to disparate health outcomes in Massachusetts and encourages research that includes all populations.
   



3. Identification of key variables that lead to poor health outcomes requires that quality data be collected consistently across agencies, providers and institutions. The network promotes the development of such quality data sets and advocates for the reporting of data that track progress on improvements of the health status of racial and ethnic communities.
   
   Collaboration and consistency are important. The network promotes strategies to identify key variables that lead to poor health outcomes and to collect quality data consistently across agencies, providers and institutions. Critical MASS advocates the sharing and reporting of data that track progress on improvements of the health status of racial and ethnic communities.
   



4. Stakeholders are individuals and organizations committed to health equity. The network seeks to involve all stakeholders including: public and community health educators, care and service providers participating in the work of eliminating health disparities.
   
   Stakeholders are individuals and organizations committed to health equity. Critical MASS must involve all stakeholders including: public and private organizations, health educators, and service providers in the work of eliminating health disparities.
   



5. Communities that experience disparate health outcomes are critical partners in problem solving and program development that improves health and well-being. The network seeks to involve community members as active participants.
   
   Communities are critical partners in problem solving and program development. The Critical MASS network encourages active participation of community members in developing strategies to improve health and well-being.
   

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Critical MASS c/o CCHERS, Inc., 716 Columbus Avenue, Suite 398, Boston, MA 02120 617 373-8597 lu.clarke@neu.edu