An important research project studying structural racism in Milwaukee County’s African American community is underway. The project, named D.R.IV.E Together (Dismantling Racism In Vigorating Equity), is being led by the Social Development Commission (SDC) and will include a survey of Milwaukee County residents to gather information about individual life experiences, their health status, and their living environment.

“You can’t take the person out of the context of their lived experience when treating them,” said Dr. Terri deRoon-Cassini, a professor in the Division of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a principal investigator on the new study. “Not everyone has the same lived experience. If we’re going to achieve equity in health outcomes, we need to understand the different environments and different experiences that everyone has in life and the impact those differences have on people and their health.”

The project is being supported by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), Marquette University, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The two-year project is being funded with a $200,000 grant from the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment. The research effort is unique in that it has been three years in the making and is the result of ongoing conversations between the SDC and its academic collaborators at Marquette, MCW, and UWM regarding solutions to the traumatic stress commonly found among urban residents in Milwaukee and other cities. Those discussions led to ideas on how to approach the issue more strategically, incorporating efforts to address the structural causes of traumatic stress.

Download a full report of this project for more information, or visit the Social Development Commission (SDC) and the Institute on Poverty and Structural Racism for more information on this and other related community initiatives.