CommuniHealth

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