History

On January 25, 2013, Vanesia R. Johnson, founder of CASE met with Mia Williams, Equity Specialist of Region 6 with the Center for the Elimination of Disproportionality and Disparities (CEDD), a division of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Nicole Hill, appointed Chairperson by CEDD to start a volunteer led Disproportionality Advisory Task Force in Fort Bend County, TX to discuss their pre-existing efforts and challenges with establishing a disproportionality task force in Fort Bend County, TX. On February 12, 2013, Vanesia R. Johnson met with them again and invited Evelyn Guzman, a local community advocate, to discuss launching CASE as an innovative countywide community level grass root initiative to address and eliminate disproportionality and disparities in Fort Bend County, TX. The initial focus of CASE was to promote community education and awareness of institutional racism and the importance for institutions to review and analyze data to help them identify and address overrepresentation of minorities receiving harsher consequences and negative outcomes within government systems. On June 11, 2014, Vanesia R. Johnson met with a select team of local community advocates to form the first governing board of CASE, transform CASE to a nonprofit with 501c4 designation, and expand the reach of CASE to address unfair and unjust institutional policies and practices affecting vulnerable citizens on the local, state, and national level.