our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

To fulfill our mission, we know we must understand the effects of systemic oppression on young people and actively combat this inequality in our work.  To do so, we commit to seeking out and learning from diverse perspectives and identities. We also actively support our staff, young people we work with, board, and community partners to provide culturally responsive learning experiences to the young people with whom we work.

our impact, by the numbers

  • Engaged more than 50 younger people (aged 13-18) in identifying and expanding  products and programming.
  • Digital app, selfsea, co-created with young people, who tell us the app helps them feel less alone
  • Youth-led equity training

from our leadership

In 2015, Peer Health Exchange made a bold commitment to moving from intent to action on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Today, we are an organization predominantly staffed by people of color that openly and directly discusses how white supremacy culture shows up in our workplace and have designed/are testing prototypes to combat those behaviors internally. Now, we are looking ahead to becoming an organization where a young person we serve could one day see themselves thriving here as an employee.

Dr. Angela Glymph
(she/her)
Chief Executive Officer
Osayuware (Tina) Enagbare
(she/her)
Chief Operating Officer
Louise Langheier
(she/her)
Co-Founder

why is health equity important to phe?

Young people of color, queer and trans young people, genderqueer young people and young people from low-income socio-economic backgrounds or with different abilities, and especially those at the intersection of these identities often don’t get to access the health knowledge and resources that they need and deserve.

Because of this, they experience worse health and life outcomes in many different ways.

This isn’t fair, and it isn’t right. It endangers young people and threatens their futures, damages families and communities, and makes all of us less healthy and prosperous overall.

what we believe

Dear friends,

When I joined Peer Health Exchange in 2014, I had the exciting and daunting task of building out Peer Health Exchange’s first-ever full Talent team. Coming into a still predominantly white organization, I saw both the challenge and potential of where we could go with a stronger focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion work.   I made strong, early progress on building systems and practices to support our staff.

From hiring and retaining folx of color to building inclusive talent systems and clarifying our organizational culture to bolstering our approach to competitive, equity-based total compensation, I feel proud of how much Peer Health Exchange has changed. Now we look ahead to building a Peer Health Exchange where a young person we engage with through our work could one day see themselves thriving here as an employee.  As Louise shares, we’ve also made important progress on who shows up in classrooms. Our curriculum is now more inclusive and culturally appropriate.

Since launching our 1st Youth Advisory Board in 2020, we’re also continuing to build ways to collaborate directly with young people to deliver even more on impact.  In 2019, I launched our ambitious 1st
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Strategy; our 2-year plan to shift our organization to one that fully operates from an equity lens and centers the voices of our core stakeholders (high school students and college student facilitators).

As we look forward to our next phase of growth, our focus is to build on where we’ve been successful while learning from our missteps and improving on them.  We know we can’t do this work alone. To make our vision a reality for young people,
we all must play a part.  We’re ready to catapult into this next phase of Peer Health Exchange and we ask that you join us in this transformation!  

- Osayuware (Tina) Enagbare
Chief Operating Officer, Peer Health Exchange

Racial identity, socio-economic status/class, gender identity/genderqueer, or sexual orientation should not determine whether young people can make the choices that allow them to live a long, healthy life.

We trust young people as the experts on their own experience of their identity, community, and health.

Together, we must dismantle the systems of oppression that threaten young people’s health. As a part of that work, we support young people to empower themselves by making active, informed choices about their health.

To change the system we have to mobilize people that mirror and show up for the young people and communities we serve who are most affected by this oppression.

our approach

  • We strive to maintain an inclusive workplace and organizational culture where all staff feel supported.
  • Internally, we are committed to addressing the ways that we perpetuate oppression. We do this by ensuring each staff member sets individual goals focused on promoting equity and/or health equity; through team dialogues/discussions and internal working groups; and a commitment to challenging ourselves to be more inclusive in our decision-making processes.
  • We surround ourselves with partners who understand how systems of oppression impact the work we do – through education and understanding and/or through their lived experiences – and help to push our work forward. In this, we seek to redress injustice by putting resources (funding and staff capacity) towards it.
  • We push ourselves to build stronger methods for listening to young people in various forms (including surveys, focus groups, and a youth advisory board). We know we need to better understand barriers and facilitators to health equity from the perspective of the youth we serve, particularly in our current socio-political climate.

our strategy

We work to create a diverse,  inclusive,  and supportive  working  environment  to attract and retain staff members from diverse  backgrounds, particularly those  that mirror the backgrounds  of young  people  we serve. We  commit to ensuring  that every member of our team has the knowledge,  training, and self-awareness  they  need  to deliver  on our vision, diversity  philosophy,  and core values.

careers at phe

Be a part of an organization where you can grow, thrive and strive to do and BE your best, everyday. We take our work seriously. We have fun. All in service of better health outcomes and a more equitable world for young people. See yourself at PHE!

download
our pdf

Learn more about our commitment, goals and outcomes towards equity, and how we’re holding ourselves accountable.