The National Black Organization Partnership Roundtable, (NBO Partnership), convened in 2019 by the Council on Black Health, creates synergy and impact through the combined power and voices of esteemed national Black organizations to accelerate progress on Black health solutions. Pathways to poor health outcomes involve a spectrum of adverse social, economic, and political factors, and impacts of the related physical and mental health trauma and stress. These factors have their roots in structural racism and must be combatted with deliberate and sustained actions that set a high bar for positive Black health outcomes using bold and innovative strategies. Examples of factors leading to poor Black health outcomes, embedded in American society through national, state, and local cultures, policies, and practices of exclusion and discrimination are:*

• limited educational opportunities or quality
• unfair housing practices
• poverty and lack of financial assets
• unemployment or unstable employment
• lack of access to health care
• incarceration
• a societal culture that blames individuals for institutionalized harms that are beyond an individual’s control
• a dominant narrative that is based on a deficit-oriented narrative about Black people

Five, foundational partners have come to the table with CBH to work in synergy represent more than 2 million voters and their personal and professional networks whom they reach through their more than 3,000 chapters or affiliates and decades of experiences in meeting the needs of Black communities, including advocacy for change.

The Partnership’s first initiative focuses on improving the quality of early childhood education for Black children. Addressing educational disparities is within the missions of the partnering organizations and is the primary mission of one partner. The early childhood focus was chosen because high quality early education is arguably the most critical factor determining not only subsequent educational trajectories but also long-term opportunity, health, and well-being and is an area of great disparities affecting Black children and their families with respect to access to needed supportive services.