Newly launched Communities of Care initiative will support community- and equity-driven approaches to improving wellbeing among children and youth of color and their families
|
|
Prevention Institute is excited to share the news that we’ve been selected to coordinate Communities of Care, a five-year initiative funded by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. Communities of Care will support 10 collaboratives as they identify and implement activities that cultivate resilience, mental health, and wellbeing among children and youth of color and their families in the greater Houston Metropolitan Area. As a guiding principle, Communities of Care will focus on equity to ensure that historically excluded and under-represented groups are included in this community-driven initiative. Communities of Care shifts the focus from individual mental health challenges and treatment to the community conditions that impact mental health and wellbeing in everyday life. This aligns with PI’s approach of promoting mental health and wellbeing through community prevention solutions like building social connection, improving the built environment, and increasing equitable access to economic opportunity. |
|
|
“One of the things that’s important about this initiative is the involvement of children, youth, and families in identifying and shaping activities that foster mental wellbeing. Whether it's through the arts or improvements to spaces where people can connect, resident leadership will tap into the community’s natural strengths and assets.
-- Sheila Savannah, managing director, Prevention Institute
|
|
This initiative is an expansion of our current work in the Texas gulf coast region, which includes a collaboration with the Episcopal Health Foundation on its Texas CCHH (Community-Centered Health Homes) Initiative. We also provide technical assistance to the Houston Making Connections site (see below for more information), led by the Houston Health Department, and the Houston partnership that participates in the BUILD Health Challenge. We opened our Houston office in the fall of 2018 and share a space with Air Alliance Houston, a nonprofit organization that believes everyone has a right to breathe clean air and works at the community and policy levels to ensure cleaner air and a healthier future. As our work expands nationally, PI maintains its headquarters in Oakland, California and has sattelite offices in Los Angeles, Houston, and Washington, DC. |
|
PI’s communities of practice in other parts of the country
|
|
Communities of practice—groups of organizations that work together on an ongoing basis to address a common concern or goal—are critical to advancing prevention and health equity. Prevention Institute facilitates several communities of practice that work on a broad range of issues, including land use, trauma, violence prevention, mental health, and opioid misuse. For example:
Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys: PI and The Movember Foundation, in partnership with 13 communities across the US, are leading a major initiative to transform community conditions that influence mental wellbeing for men and boys of color, military service members, and veterans. The 13 rural, urban, and suburban communities are implementing strategies to improve conditions that can affect the wellbeing of men and boys, such as increasing social connection, creating employment opportunities, and improving the availability of safe, affordable housing.
Intersections Initiative: PI is partnering with the St. Joseph Health Community Partnership Fund to support seven California-based community collaboratives to address the underlying causes of illness and injury. Through the Intersections Initiative, the communities are working on issues like housing, education, and civic engagement to improve community-wide health and advance health equity.
Safety Through Connection: Building Community Capacity to Prevent Partner Violence: Prevention Institute leads a program through which five California collaboratives are receiving planning and capacity-building grants from the Blue Shield of California Foundation to prevent domestic violence among low-wage workers, rural and tribal communities, immigrants, and other communities that experience high rates of this type of violence.
Photo credit: CC Elvert Barnes |
|
|
