CHRISTUS Health commemorated Black History Month by inviting the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum to set up exhibits at its headquarters in Irving, Texas.

More than 400 CHRISTUS Associates stopped by to learn more about the history of the American West and cowboys of color.

Cowboys of color are an often overlooked treasure of our American history, so CHRISTUS Health’s department of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion sponsored the event, which enabled participants to gain an understanding of the many innovators, visionaries and cowboy pioneers who helped build the unique culture that is the American West.

Buckles, saddles and memorabilia were on display and historians told the real life stories of cowboys, cowgirls and Buffalo Soldiers through engaging stories.

Joe Mouton helped organize the event. He said after one presentation, one of his colleagues came up with a compliment and then asked, ‘Why did you pick this topic?’

“I said this is America, and we should know more about our American heroes of the past. Twenty-five percent of cowboys in this country were of color. This fact and the stories of struggles and triumph in the West deserve our attention,” said Mouton. “As children, we grew up thinking the wild west was what we saw on TV. It was just a tough and rough place for men forming posses, when it fact it was truly multicultural and diverse with principles and cultural relationships that went beyond bar-room brawls and shootouts.”

 

Diversity, inclusion and educational initiatives like this recent one are ongoing across CHRISTUS.

Some of the recent highlights include

The work through Leadership Diversity to make sure CHRISTUS top leaders represent the demographic make up of the communities they serve.

The introduction of a special and intensive training called Cultural Competence Skill Building. The program is geared toward clinicians and Associates to help in efforts to better engage with diverse patient populations

Addressing Equity of Care remains an imperative goal for all of CHRISTUS, in which we continue to identify and eliminate health disparities, which are differences in health care access or health outcomes based on factors such as race, ethnic background or socioeconomic status.

To read more about CHRISTUS Health’s long recognized fundamentals of diversity and inclusion visit: CHRISTUS Health Diversity and Inclusion