10/4/2019 From Emergencies To Equity: The Growing Role Of Hospitals In Community Health | Health Affairs
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communities as a whole. Success for this three-year, $4 million initiative will be
embodied by the strengthened capacity of community-based organizations and
stakeholders to serve as advocates and champions of health equity.
Community Approaches
In Sonoma, partners came together to form the Sonoma Intersections Coalition, with
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital (the local Providence St. Joseph Hospital) serving as the
backbone. The coalition recognized that low housing inventory was only one of the
obstacles making it harder for residents to nd affordable housing. Income inequality
and past involvement with the criminal justice system were obstacles for some residents
as well. Their comprehensive approach to addressing these factors includes support for
policy measures that would take questions about past conviction status off of
applications and make it illegal to discriminate based on source of income. Additionally,
the coalition is training key decision makers to take trauma into account in policy making,
especially related to housing.
Across the state of California, Intersections sites are building their bench of partners to
address multiple determinants of health and to understand how strategies that affect
one determinant can support other determinants. In the arid desert of Victorville and
Adelanto, St. Mary Medical Center is working closely with community partners to
strengthen local school decision-making processes, so that they include the voices of
students and parents and can support better educational outcomes. Simultaneously,
partners are considering how economic development opportunities can prioritize existing
residents in benetting from new and emerging jobs. With the potential of a stronger
local workforce and jobs with which to connect residents, the partnership is also working
to embed equity principles in new housing development plans to discourage
displacement of families who have a longstanding presence in the region.
In urban central Orange County, a coalition is making efforts to stabilize rent and housing
costs for low-income neighborhoods and families in Santa Ana and Stanton. Additionally,
coalition members are pursuing complementary workforce and business development
strategies and planning to seek changes to nancial and lending policies at banks and
other entities to make them inclusive and fair for everyone. The coalition is also
advocating for county, regional, and state housing policies that can protect and expand
tenant rights and increase affordable housing options across the state.
Similarly, partnerships in Anaheim, south Orange County, Napa, and Eureka are
addressing a multitude of community factors, such as housing, education, civic
engagement, and economic well-being, recognizing that these issues and others affect
