Meeting Community Needs in Times of Crisis and Beyond

• By:  Stefanie Mueller
• Posted:  August 9, 2022
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In times of crisis, the immediate urge is to seek helpers — and find a way to help. However, the best ways to help and heal may not always be clear, and some populations may be impacted disproportionately not only by a crisis itself, but by long-term factors like systemic racism and challenges related to social determinants of health.

Local and regional businesses can have an important role in providing strong, community-focused leadership and illuminating the path forward, empowering community groups, employees, and others to contribute to purposeful relief efforts and healing.

Deep, ongoing relationships with community partners, like the one between Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York (Highmark BCBSWNY) and the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, can be especially valuable in identifying critical needs and providing support where it is most essential. Beyond food and wellness item donations, first aid stations, emergency shelters, and funds to support crisis response, such relationships also lay the groundwork for understanding challenges and collaborating on solutions that are generational rather than immediate.

Community connections provide immediate support

Dr. Michael Edbauer, president, Highmark Western and Northeastern New York Inc., asserts that the rapid, effective response to the impact of the May 14 mass shooting at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York was driven in large part by strong existing relationships between BCBSWNY and the community.

“The connection we’ve developed with our business and community partners was so helpful in those immediate moments,” he says. “Because of the reciprocal relationships built over the years, our Community Affairs team was able to quickly get community partners on the phone to identify the most emergent needs within the neighborhood impacted by the loss of beloved residents and closing of their only grocery store. We were able to connect with organizations like FeedMore WNY, M&T Bank, Pegula Sports, the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres to get food, funds, and personal hygiene products into the hands of those who needed them most.”

Long-term solutions: Addressing social determinants of health

While the quick response to the shooting was crucial in helping East Buffalo community members get through the crisis and its aftermath, the tragedy also amplified pre-existing issues, including racial inequities, lack of access to safe and affordable housing, food insecurity, subpar education, and a dearth of job opportunities. These and similar issues are often referred to as social determinants of health due to their impact on social, emotional, and physical health and well-being. Having struggled with these challenges for decades, the people of East Buffalo had to cope with lost access to healthy foods on top of the trauma and personal loss from hate-fueled violence.

In the face of these broader societal issues, asking “what’s next?” can be incredibly daunting. Dr. Edbauer believes that corporate-community partnerships have a vital role to play, but he emphasizes that solutions and investments need to be long-term.

“It’s a long road, and we need to maintain the interest in addressing these issues, so it doesn’t fade away after a few news cycles,” he says. “These problems are decades, even hundreds of years, in the making, so we have to be willing to put in the time and resources to effect meaningful change.”

He adds that it is imperative to find and connect with the right community partners — and to listen.

“It is important that our approach involves multiple stakeholders who are truly part of the community. Without diverse voices in the room providing connections, we do not know what strengths and capabilities we have,” he explains. “I am finding that people are very willing to talk — and that may be because we have been very clear that we are willing to listen. I think that is a big part of our responsibility, and my responsibility as a leader — to listen.”

An ongoing collaboration with the Buffalo Center for Health Equity is one good example of this eagerness to listen to and address community needs and concerns. In December of 2021, Highmark BCBSWNY announced a $1.5 million grant to the center as part of a commitment to developing and implementing strategies to address racial and health inequities in the region. It also awarded in-kind real estate, allowing the Buffalo Center for Health Equity to expand and relocate its offices within Highmark BCBSWNY headquarters in downtown Buffalo.

The Buffalo Center for Health Equity: Eliminating health disparities

Founded in 2014 by Rev. George F. Nicholas, senior pastor, Lincoln Memorial United Methodist, the Buffalo Center for Health Equity has collaboration at its very core. As a group of community leaders discussed the disproportionate impact of colorectal cancer on Buffalo’s Black community, Pastor Nicholas challenged them to take a broader look at chronic health data for the predominantly African American zip codes in the city.

“When you look at health outcomes in these areas, especially as they relate to chronic diseases compared to white individuals in other areas of the city, Black community members are three times more likely to have poor outcomes and chronic illness,” he explains.

He emphasizes that these poor outcomes are driven primarily by the area’s social determinants of health and are products of systemic and institutional racism. The lived environment, lack of educational support, poor housing stock, high unemployment rates, low wages, poor air and water quality, uneven interaction with the criminal justice system — all contribute directly to poor individual and collective health outcomes.

Ultimately, Pastor Nicholas and his team formed the Buffalo Center for Health Equity to set to work addressing these social determinants. The not-for-profit organization’s mission is to “eliminate race, economic, and geographic-based health inequities in Western New York by changing the social and economic conditions that cause illness and shorten lives among the sickest of the region.”

“We started building a broader-based coalition of community members, institutional partners, and members of the health care industry to address these disparities,” he says. Rather than being a service delivery organization, this coalition focuses on community engagement, program and policy development, and research to “develop intentional and innovative solutions that will positively impact health outcomes for the African American community.”

For Pastor Nicholas, the food access problem that arose with the temporary closure of the Tops supermarket was not new. He uses the phrase “food apartheid” to talk about places like East Buffalo.

“When people describe an area as a ‘food desert,’ it is implied that there is a natural phenomenon creating a lack of access to healthy foods. But we know that this neighborhood’s lack of access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other health foods is man-made,” he explains.

It would logically follow that the solutions to these issues must be “man-made” as well. And the Buffalo Center for Health Equity has taken an active role, relaunching the First Fruits Food Pantry in 2020. Free to those in need, the pantry offers fresh produce, meats, and canned goods with the guidance of a local nutritionist to ensure underserved area residents have easy access to healthy food.

Working together for generational change

When the Tops supermarket reopened, it eased one impact of the crisis, but the area’s social determinants of health challenges remain, and the real work is just getting started.

“The challenge is to look at not only how we respond to May 14, but how we respond to what May 14 exposed,” Pastor Nicholas says.

For the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, efforts to create long-term systemic change — what Pastor Nicholas dubs “generational work” — have been ongoing since the center’s founding. Dr. Edbauer, too, reiterates the need for continued, collaborative work to address social determinants.

“Until we address the underlying issues with a systems approach, we will not be successful. We cannot simply address the symptoms of these problems. We need to focus on the root causes,” he asserts.

Given most people’s preference for instant gratification, generational solutions built over years or decades may seem formidable — and they are formidable when viewed simply at an individual level. But long-term solutions become more possible within enduring cross-sector relationships that leverage diverse strengths and skills to serve shared community goals.

When organizations like the Buffalo Center for Health Equity and Highmark BCBSWNY work together, everyone benefits. For example, the center’s relationship with Highmark BCBSWNY affords the grassroots organization the size, resources, and reputation of the region’s largest health plan. With a robust history of giving and community support, Highmark BCBSWNY’s influence can also bring additional corporate and community partners to the table, creating even more diverse and impactful conversations and relationships. For Highmark BCBSWNY, the center’s position as a collaborative and trusted community partner provides crucial inroads and insights into the wants and needs of the public. This reciprocal relationship gives both organizations the agility and knowledge to not only meet community needs during times of crisis but also take on deeper, long-term challenges like health disparities.

The path forward

As the partnership between Highmark BCBSWNY and the Buffalo Center for Health Equity continues to strengthen and develop, leaders of both organizations are looking to the road ahead and discussing the next steps in addressing racial and health disparities.

For Dr. Edbauer, every step forward is important, and they are not all about big initiatives.

“To me, little things make a difference,” he says. “Openly and vocally expressing support. Actively listening. Consistently reinforcing that these are community problems to be solved together. Racial and health care disparities are collective problems, and we are ready to work with our partners and our communities to solve them.”

Backing up that commitment, the health plan announced a $300,000 investment in local organizations that not only support crisis relief efforts but continue to work to enact real systemic change. Among other efforts, that includes providing crisis and mental health support, ensuring community members have access to quality food and health care, assisting with socioeconomic and criminal justice issues, and educating and empowering children and job seekers. These regional efforts also align with a broader enterprise strategy to address social determinants of health.

For Pastor Nicholas, the first step to enacting real change is making a real commitment.

“The priority is to make this the priority,” he explains. “Once you put that stake in the ground, the next steps will begin to emerge, and then let’s see what we come up with together.”