Learning, Growing and Thriving Together During CareFirst’s 6th Annual Week of Equity & Action
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) recently hosted our 6th Annual Week of Equity & Action. The event strengthens our commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable company culture where all employees, executives, leadership and board members listen, learn and act to further our mission of advancing affordable, accessible and equitable healthcare for all. This year’s programming was dedicated to the theme of “Together we learn. Together we grow. Together we thrive.”
At CareFirst, one of our core values highlighted throughout the Week of Equity & Action is “One Company, One Team,” a value that celebrates our diverse backgrounds and experiences. As one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit healthcare organizations and a leading employer in the Mid-Atlantic region, CareFirst’s Week of Equity & Action is an opportunity for CareFirst Difference Makers, what we call our employees, to listen, learn and act to build high-performing teams, deliver exceptional results on behalf of the people we serve and drive transformation in the healthcare industry.
- Listening: actively hearing other perspectives, practicing empathy and asking questions to understand.
- Learning: engaging in difficult conversations, practicing self-reflection and introspection, and engaging people with respect.
- Acting: standing up for everyone, advocating, intervening when we see inequity and uplifting all voices.
Educational Seminars for Listening and Learning
During the Week of Equity & Action, our workforce is encouraged to attend workshops and panel discussions to hear from experts, thought leaders and advocates on various topics surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Opening the week was an exciting panel featuring four equity champions discussing “Social Drivers of Health and Their Impact on Equity.” This session provided attendees with a bigger picture of health, one that includes the physical, behavioral, social and environmental factors that impact and drive our well-being. The panel explored what individuals and organizations can do to help make this a more equitable world. Speakers included Mark Anthony Thomas, President and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee; Lara Wilson, Interim Vice President of Rural Health Care Transformation and Executive Director at the University of Maryland Shore Medical Center (UM SMC) at Chestertown; Hugo Mogollon, Executive Director of Community Foodworks; and Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts, Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health at the University of Maryland College Park.
“It’s important to draw on the history, so that people can understand it, as opposed to just looking at the health outcome or health disparity in a vacuum, because that’s really the only way you can really dig in and try to dismantle it.“
-Dr. Jennifer D. Roberts, Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, University of Maryland College Park
Throughout the week, employees were encouraged to attend a suite of live, virtual workshops to support their ability to serve our diverse community.
Workshop Topics:
- Navigating Neurodiversity
- First Generation Perspectives on Leadership
- Thriving Under Pressure
- Understanding Unconscious Bias
- Mental Health in the Workplace
- Effectively Communicating Across Cultures
- Veteran Voices
- Black Maternal Health
Our closing session featured Poet Ali, a motivational speaker and an Artist of Human Connection who presents connection as a universal language that transcends boundaries and fosters empathy in a divided world. This year, we also had an exciting guest speaker to close out the week-long programming, the 63rd Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore. Governor Moore connected with Difference Makers during our first rendition of this event in 2019 when he served as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation. For our first-ever Day of Equity & Action, over 5,000 CareFirst employees participated in educational sessions and volunteered at over 20 locations to support our communities.
“We leave no one behind. And when we do that as a state, we won’t just win, we’re going to set the example for the entire country. And I could not be more grateful to have partners like you who are helping to make it happen every single day.”
- Governor Wes Moore, 63rd Governor of Maryland
What started as one day has turned into a week-long event with 12 seminar topics running multiple times and interactive activities. Over 6,000 CareFirst employees, executives, leaders and board members engaged in the listening and learning programs during this year’s Week of Equity & Action, with nearly 4,000 attending five or more sessions during the week.
Acting Through Volunteering
Our workforce had the opportunity to act on what we learned through volunteering with nonprofits and community partners across Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. Nearly 500 employees, leaders and board members supported 19 partners during this year’s event, with 36 locations originally scheduled and some moved to an additional day during the fall to accommodate summer temperatures.
“This is an opportunity for us, really altogether, all at once, to pour into our community and to be with the people that we serve, that we count on for this organization to do what we do. The principle involved in this is really about creating that space and place that allows us to connect and see each other more fully and to understand the importance of what we do. And, most importantly, why we do it.”
- Brian D. Pieninck, President and CEO, CareFirst
The volunteer opportunities allowed our organization to connect with our communities and neighbors under the guiding principle that you cannot be with the community if you are not in the community.
Volunteer Impact:
- Volunteers packed over 165 backpacks for Prince George's County Volunteers of America Hope Center Maryland students with Volunteers of America Chesapeake and Carolinas.
- Difference Makers collected 96 pounds of trash from the beach and boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland with the Surfrider Foundation Ocean City Maryland Chapter.
- In two hours, volunteers helped 335 households, 985 individuals and loaded/supplied a total of 17,775 pounds of food for distribution at the County United Way in Cumberland, Maryland.
- At DC Central Kitchen, volunteers prepared:
- 3,591 Community Meals
- 1,975 Summer Food Service Program meals
- 814 units of fruit for Healthy Corners
- 700 meals for DCPS Summer school program
Equity and Action 365
At CareFirst, we actively work to create and sustain a supportive and equitable environment where employees feel like they are connected to our business and invested in our collective success. That is why we now offer “Week of Equity and Action 365,” a program that empowers employees to act on these principles 365 days of the year through resources and additional learning sessions coordinated through our DEI office.
We are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished through our Week of Equity & Action and are proud of its increasingly expanded role in our organization. We encourage local businesses, nonprofits and community leaders to join us in our commitment to advancing equity and action in our region every day, 24/7 and 365 days a year.
