Community Organizing to Influence Policy Change in Oregon for Disaggregated Data Collection

The Institute of Medicine (IOM)'s Subcommittee on Standardized Collection of Race/Ethnicity Data for Healthcare Quality Improvement recommends standardized collection of the existing Office of Management and Budget race and Hispanic ethnicity categories as well as locally relevant categories of disaggregated ethnicity and languages. The lack of category standardization hinders achieving health outcomes for many populations most at risk for increasing morbidity and mortality. In Oregon state, the need to collect data from disaggregated ethnic populations had been identified but no timeline had been established for implementation.

This article describes a model for community organizing for policy change with 48 local organizations that consists of advocacy organizations, communities of color, and organizations with legislative expertise, for the Oregon House Bill 2134, which aimed to disaggregate ethnicity and language data.

Details of the process experience with partner organizations who were at the table and key legislative strategies facilitating this policy change are discussed.