Vet-REDI COMING SOON
Like CARE’s highly effective Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion [REDI] coursework, Vet-REDI will take learners on a journey to better understand the intersections between Equity, Cultural Competence, and Human and Animal Well-Being.
Access to Preventive CARE is an essential tool for marginalized communities who contend with barriers that – cannot – be resolved with Access to Care funding and low-cost Veterinarian practices.
Structural Racism and Classicism too often deter
community members from seeking veterinary care as they
fear or have experienced poor treatment by veterinary staff.
The U.S. is facing a severe shortage of veterinarians. There are approximately. 135,000,000 Million companion pets in America, and less than 60,000 veterinarians to help keep them healthy. Making matters worse, only 2% of the Veterinary field is African American, and less than 1% is Indigenous.
Aside from the lack of diversity and scarcity of veterinarians, few offices are located within underserved BIPOC communities. We don’t just have an Access to Care gap, We have a Physical and Cultural Competency gap as well.
We cannot develop BIPOC veterinarians overnight nor quickly open a host of veterinary practices in underserved communities. But, we can offer a comprehensive set of tools to the field to reduce harm and create more welcoming experiences for underserved and marginalized communities.
REDI = Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
REDI works outside the traditional framework of DE&I. Often DE&I is performative, done to look as though diversity is the goal. For this reason, DE&I initiatives seldom last long, rarely transfer power to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color [BIPOC], or create systemic and equitable shifts within the organizations that innate them.
Thanks to Maddie’s Fund and Petsmart Charities, CARE is able to offer coursework that helps students look critically at our current and historical failures as it pertains to Racial Equity. CARE seeks to put committed organizations and individuals on a path to greater truth and understanding, and eventually to Action.
Special thanks to Spring Point Partners, Life of Riley.
