CommuniHealth
Strategies for Standing Up, Strengthening, and Sustaining the Local Community Health Sector
(a.k.a. CommuniVax 2.0)
CommuniHealth represents the redoubling of efforts to accelerate the maturation of local community health systems in CommuniVax sites in Alabama, California, and Maryland. A derivative of these intensified efforts will be the generation of strategic and practical tools—forged in real-world conditions—that can be applied in other localities where the community health sector needs further strengthening.
Community health workers (CHWs) and community- and faith-based organizations (CFBOs)—through their leadership and involvement in COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, vaccination distribution and administration, and food security—have shown unmatched abilities to redress both racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection and death rates, and the basic inequities that have led to the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on communities of color.
The crystallization of community health assets into a genuine system—one that is socially valued and sustainably financed—is key to advancing health equity and strengthening trust in public health, as the country moves through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Project team leads: Monica Schoch-Spana, PhD; Emily Brunson, PhD, MPH
Project team: Divya Hosangadi, MSPH; Sanjana Ravi, MPH; Maddie Taylor, MSPH candidate; Marc Trotochaud, MSPH
Project supported by: Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Resources:
- The CommuniHealth Playbook: How to Spur on Your Local Community Health Sector
- Building a Ground Game: How to Conduct a Community Needs Assessment and Launch a CHW Workforce Development Coalition
- Guide for Effective Partnerships Between Academic Institutions and Community Health Workers/Promotores
- Strengthening Health Promotion Through Sustained Hyperlocal Community Engagement
Focus areas:
- Global Health Security
- Emerging Infectious Disease and Epidemics
- Medical and Public Health Preparedness and Response