As a member company of the nation’s largest dental insurance provider, we at Northeast Delta Dental believe we have a responsibility to help create a more equitable society. We have been deeply involved in the communities we serve for more than 60 years, guided by a promise to improve the oral and overall health of all citizens in our region. As part of that promise, Delta Dental’s nationwide network of 39 independent companies is committed to continually advancing diversity, equity and inclusion and addressing the needs of diverse communities through holistic efforts. We, at Northeast Delta Dental, do this through several initiatives.
The following are just 3 examples of tactics within our DEI strategy. The first includes providing funding to support the Manchester Community Action Coalition (MCAC) Community Tutoring Program, a program that offers free academic support to K-12 students and their families from BIPOC, Immigrant, Disability and other historically marginalized communities in Manchester. In 2019, 46.5% of the district’s enrolled students were students of color. This funding specifically covered the purchase of the Achieve3000 educational enrichment platform, which prioritizes personalized learning and individualized student support.
The second involves sponsoring a year-long webinar series called “Workplace Racial Equity Challenge” through the NH Business for Social Responsibility. This challenge includes weekly discussion groups that bring together diverse professionals interested in growing diversity and inclusion in our state. They come together to learn about the history and dynamics of how racism manifests at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and systemic levels. This helps to gain insights into NH history and current imperatives on issues relating to racial equity, while discovering local resources and leaders working on these issues so we can support, amplify, and/or complement this work.
The third is our sponsorship of the Black Heritage Trail and the Black New England Conference each year. The 2021 Black New England Conference explores paths forward from legacies of racism to collective accountability and collective healing. Presenters examined the ongoing impacts of enslavement, mass incarceration, unethical medical experimentation, disenfranchisement, and the many more harms perpetrated against people of African descent as well as present-day efforts to gain reparations and the healing inherent in proper memorialization of accurate history.
In summary, Northeast Delta Dental has been and continues to be a leader in achieving DEI both internally through human resources training, hiring and board recruitment as well as externally through the improvement of oral health disparities within the communities we support.
Learn more about the guiding DEI principles that Northeast Delta Dental and all 39 Delta Dental member companies have unanimously adopted.
