El Cajon, CA

San Diego Wellness Collaborative
Health Net of California
San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition
License to Freedom
United Women of East Africa Support Team
County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency
Majdal: Arab Community Center of San Diego
UC San Diego Refugee Health Unit

ABOUT

Refugee families often face housing discrimination based on race, country of origin, religion, or familial status. The San Diego Wellness Collaborative and the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition are leveraging their strengths to improve housing stability for refugee populations in El Cajon using a multi-sector, community-driven approach. This bold effort includes upstream advocacy to influence policy and system changes among housing stakeholders, cross-sector community education about housing regulations and the unique challenges faced by refugee populations, and capacity building to better enable refugee populations to understand, navigate, and access housing assistance and processes.

Our Impact

We will see the following changes: increased understanding of the needs and priorities of refugee communities related to housing stability, the connection between housing and health, and of necessary changes in policies and procedures; improved engagement of residents and leaders from refugee communities in decision making and advocacy efforts; progress made towards systems-level change, including policy solutions and operational practices that will reduce inequities; and enhanced collaborative practices and ways of working that are inclusive, trauma-informed and reflective of inclusive values.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

The HTH project helps to gain a better understanding of the scale and scope of the needs, challenges, and assets of refugee communities; inform solutions (including system and policy changes) that meet immediate needs and address historic social and health inequities; and mobilize action from multi-sector stakeholders and community partners.

Upstream

Conditions such as lack of stable housing and economic hardship are major influencers of health and well-being. Solving these problems involves multiple partners, increased awareness, policy and systems change, and capacity building. We bring together multi-sector partners, working side-by-side with members of the refugee community, to address the root causes of and advance improvements in housing stability to positively impact long-term health outcomes for refugees.

Integrated

SDWC breaks down silos between clinical and community partners (including health plans, public health, CBOs, and others) to address health disparities and advance health equity with each partner playing a unique role. Existing partnerships have enabled us to build trust and establish a track record of working together. SDRCC’s experience, relationships, and trust built with refugee communities enables participation by individuals affected by housing instability and its root causes.

Local

SDRCC is built upon a foundation of community engagement and trust. SDRCC staff and CHWs who support the program are all members of a refugee community who live/and or work in the identified neighborhood and are bilingual in the languages spoken by residents. Community engagement and mobilization ensure that resident voices inform all aspects of the work.

Data-Driven

Equity-driven data approaches include listening sessions, case studies, and surveys to build greater understanding of the scale, scope, and root causes of housing instability as well as the consequences that housing instability has on access to health and health outcomes. Output and outcome data are collected to determine the extent to which the program is being implemented as intended, track changes, and inform midcourse corrections. Data analysis will result in actionable insights.