COVID-19 Equity Rebuilding for Resilient Communities (Project CERRC) - AltaMed respectfully requests $1,500,000 over the three-year period ($500,000 per year) for the proposed COVID-19 Equity Rebuilding Taskforce for Resilient Communities (Project CERRC). Project CERCC will continue the next phase of AltaMed’s grassroots community centered COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Initiative Crisis Response and Recovery efforts toward building long-term community resilience, capacity building and empowerment in communities of Southeast Los Angeles (SELA) and Central Orange County (Central OC) in Southern California. Based on community led priorities, Project CERCC will be a collaboration among activated, committed community members, youth, and patients, and community stakeholders in the multi-sector My Community, My Health Coalition (MCMH) coordinated by The AltaMed Institute for Health Equity’s Community Organizing and Research Engagement Team (CORE). This collaborative provides a robust cross-section of the community that will be engaged in the design, implementation and evaluation of policies targeting four Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)/structural domains over the funding period. Project CERRC Taskforce will be established as a solution for coalition building/partnership mobilization toward policy, systems and environmental change (PSE) efforts. Project Goals: The goal of this project is to leverage the unique moment of COVID-19 rebuilding to address the impact of structural racism in the historically disinvested predominantly Latinx communities of Southeast Los Angeles (SELA) and Central Orange County (Central OC). This rebuilding will happen through grassroots and community-driven policy change initiatives across these four strategic goals and intermediary SDoH domains/structural determinants: 1. Increase access to affordable housing; 2. Reduce food insecurity (increase food access for all); 3. Strengthen worker protection laws in low-wage, front-line occupations (for workers to keep their jobs in future public health emergencies); 4. Expand Health Insurance Coverage, regardless of citizenship status and age, “Health for All Californians”. Project Objectives: The goals will be achieved by three objectives: 1) Develop a Community Advisory Board (CAB) and a mobilization taskforce to increase opportunities and enhance community capacity to inform and engage in leading policy change initiatives; 2) Increase capacity for partners, community stakeholders and policymakers to create and implement community centered priorities for equitable building post COVID-19; and 3) Mobilize the Project CERRC Taskforce and the multi-sector My Community, My Health (MCMH) Coalition partners to take action around priorities and policy change projects. Key Outcomes: By the end of the three-year grant period: Project CERRC will: (a) Establish a pipeline for community engagement; (b) Community members will be developing, leading and authoring reports with qualitative and quantitative research (e.g., Policy Briefs); (c) Increase collaboration between community and partners; (d) Develop systems/culture change in community partnered organizations following capacity building efforts; (e) Build Infrastructure for community to inform, monitor and hold accountable stakeholders and decision makers to ensure that policy change initiatives are aligned with community priorities and address root cause issues. By building a system for ongoing engagement and power-sharing, Project CERRC will: (f) Engage 1,050 community members through policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change activities; (g) Enable 25% of community members to move at least one category across the engagement spectrum; (h) Through Community Awareness and PSE Campaigns, achieve cumulative reach of 450,000 in soft touches and cumulative direct outreach of 15,000; (i) Reach 50 leaders at community based organizations, governmental agencies, public offices (elected officials), or other stakeholders through stakeholder awareness campaigns.
