The health of all children has been, and always will be, our mission and number one priority. We are committed to treating all patients, team members and visitors with dignity and respect. As team members at a public, regional and urban academic medical center, we have chosen to serve all children, regardless of their background or inherent differences. We are a diverse team and acknowledge many of us have experienced injustices on a personal level. We believe our differences make us stronger.
It is critical as our region’s leader in pediatric health care, that we stand as an action-oriented ally to help address the regional and national impacts of discrimination on our children. These injustices manifest themselves in every corner of basic human needs, affecting everything from equal access to healthy food, water, safe housing, and preventive health care – to equity in health outcomes and unmet mental health needs. We recognize words aren’t enough. We must channel our emotions and our efforts to bring about long overdue, meaningful change for our patients, families and team members.
VCU Health System recently ratified a diversity, equity and inclusion statement that will guide the future of VCU Health, including the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. As part of it, we vowed to fearlessly accept criticism and continuously learn from our mistakes with transparency and humility.
Our history can teach us valuable lessons to make VCU Health, CHoR and the communities we serve better places.
Discrimination and racism of any kind have no place in our health system and society. As stated by Michael Rao, PhD, president of VCU and VCU Health System, “…we can no longer afford to stand by idly. None of us is immune. We must stand to change the systems we have created. We must continue to empower and support our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and neighbors to change the world by making equity and inclusion accessible everywhere. We must think about our shared humanity in more enlightened ways, because quite frankly, black lives must matter if we are to ever realize the potential of VCU’s shared community and the vast privileges of belonging to a global community.”
