Community Power in Population Health Improvement Proceedings of a Workshop (2022) / Chapter Skim
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6 Community-Led Transformational Narratives
6 Community-Led Transformational Narratives
Pages 73-92
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From page 73... ...
(Carrillo, Llanes Pulido, Sostaita) • Traditional community engagement can be transactional when focused on quantitative metrics regarding event attendance and survey completion.
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From page 74... ...
, co-moderated the session. AGENCY AND COMMUNITY POWER Gunderson introduced the panelists as agents of community power who navigate power relationships in community settings that are marked by dramatic inequity along predictable lines of race, ethnicity, language, and legal status.
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From page 75... ...
THE POWER IN HONORING CULTURE Rashida Ferdinand, founder and executive director at the Sankofa Community Development Corporation, is from the lower Ninth Ward area of New Orleans, Louisiana.3 In 2008, she started her organization with the goal of improving the quality of life for people in her neighborhood by addressing systemic barriers that cause health inequities and dis 2 George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes. Video footage of his death led to worldwide protests for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
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GO AUSTIN/VAMOS AUSTIN COMMUNITY INITIATIVES Carmen Llanes Pulido, executive director at Go Austin/Vamos Austin (GAVA) , presented a collage of photos from the last large gathering of its coalition in Austin, Texas, before social restrictions related to the COVID19 pandemic were put into place.4 The collage included images from a variety of settings, including classrooms, homes, and neighborhoods.
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From page 77... ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected many of the neighborhoods that community organizers are working in, making this work all the more relevant. Llanes Pulido noted the significance of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosting a workshop focused on power, which she viewed as a reflection of the progress achieved through a tremendous amount of action toward community building.
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From page 78... ...
Petit described LBF as the glue that brings together residents, community organizers, and decision makers, providing them with the tools and resources they need to create positive change. LBF supports community leaders and works to advance equitable policies.
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COMMUNITY-CENTERED REVITALIZATION Michelle Carrillo, director of programs and community solutions at Humboldt Area Foundation, is from Del Norte County in northern California.6 While this region has been Mee-shvm-dvn -- or a place of plenty -- for the Indigenous Tolowa people since the beginning of time, the community has also experienced great losses in the forms of genocide and a boom-and-bust economy over the past 150 years. However, the community members help one another in times of disaster, including during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
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From page 80... ...
Even while navigating life as a single working mother, she found deep connections with people who believed in her and invested in her development as a leader in systems change for health equity. That year, community leaders began a decade-long journey to build a healthy community by way of The California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities initiative.
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From page 81... ...
and increasing statistical findings nationwide indicating that zip codes are better predictors of health outcomes than genetic codes, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation catalyzed a 5-year, place-based childhood obesity intervention. Llanes Pulido recalled constructive critique from an equity specialist who grew up in Dove Springs, a neighborhood in southeast Austin at the center of GAVA's work.
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From page 82... ...
Llanes Pulido said short- and intermediate-term health initiatives are of limited value if people continue to be exposed to forces that are negatively affecting them, or if they are displayed from the communities that support their health. This shift in focus made it more difficult to secure funding as a place-based health initiative among traditional funders of childhood health, she noted.
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From page 83... ...
Power as Health Gunderson suggested that power can expand beyond working toward health to being an embodiment of health in and of itself. For instance, empowered communities may be more likely to mobilize vaccination efforts.
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Role of State Funding in Community Building A participant working in a state health department asked for advice in funding place-based initiatives in communities working to use statelevel power and federal funding streams to improve health equity and reduce health disparities. The participant asked how to leverage the power of a state health department to shift the flow of funding to the community without assuming a domineering role or violating community trust.
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From page 85... ...
In building relationships with the local hospitals and the health department, Sostaita learned that the county health department had many resources available, but all were in English. He now offers weekly lifecoaching classes to help community members seek out the resources they need, including the on-site health services he has organized, such as flu vaccines provided free of charge.
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From page 86... ...
Often, the very spaces for organizing and providing services to support health require protection, Llanes Pulido said. She recalled organizing in elementary schools about a decade ago regarding an unfunded state mandate to coordinate school health.
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From page 87... ...
The studies measured accessibility of healthy food and physical activity, utilization of community assets, health behaviors, and community readiness to address barriers to those resources. Llanes Pulido said that, while health behaviors improved and body mass index stabilized in adults with high exposure to GAVA's efforts, troubling evidence emerged regarding the child body mass index readings being measured.
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From page 88... ...
An understanding that the people who experience effects are key to creating solutions has developed in the field of health equity, said Llanes Pulido. Allowing communities to lead conversations enables them to identify the underlying problems that organizations should be focusing on.
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From page 89... ...
Llanes Pulido is a second-generation organizer who grew up during the galvanizing phase of the environmental justice movement. In 1992, low-income communities of color with a budget of approximately $2,000 were able to successfully organize efforts resulting in six transnational oil companies vacating a fuel storage facility in East Austin.
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From page 90... ...
For example, a transgender youth hosted a county commissioner town hall and created a radio program about racial equity with the mayor in a rural, conservative community. In addition, a 22-year-old is serving on the city council.
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From page 91... ...
COMMUNITY-LED TRANSFORMATIONAL NARRATIVES 91 simultaneously holds memories of ancestors and provides children with a place to explore, enjoy nature, and be free gives her hope. Gunderson showed a painting that depicts a sun shining over places of worship from various religions.
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