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SHARE, TRUST, ORGANIZE, PARTNER, THE COVID-19 CALIFORNIA ALLIANCE (STOP COVID-19 CA): COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AS A DISTRIBUTIVE APPROACH TO ADDRESS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC'S CRISES AND DISPARITIES AMONG CALIFORNIA'S MOST VULNERABLE-HOW WELL DID WE DO, AND WHERE TO GO NEXT?
Journal of General Internal Medicine ; 37:S321-S322, 2022.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1995613
ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

California is the most populous state in the United States (US), with 40 million residents and a global economy that would be the 5th largest. California is also known for dramatic disparities in wealth and healthwith some of the richest and poorest communities in the world just a few miles apart. As such, the traumas of the Coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic have fallen starkly and unevenly across this state. An equitable and just pandemic response calls for a “distributive approach” to close the gaps on these disparate COVID-19 experiences. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) responded in such a way-with the Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) as an NIH platform for real-time communityengaged COVID-19 strategies. The NIH CEAL asked for the development of state teams to engage communities, and California was one of the first states to answer this call. STOP COVID-19 CA was established in September 2021 to advance equity in COVID-19 research, clinical practice, and public health for California's most under-resourced racial/ethnic minority groups. This study evaluates the early impacts of the Alliance, from the perspective of its participating sites and partnered community-based organizations (CBOs).

METHODS:

11 university sites (and their 68 affiliated CBOs) were sent a qualtrics survey in August 2021. We requested at least one academic/CBO response from each of the 11 sites. We conducted a mixed methods evaluation of the responses analysis of monthly acitivity reports from sites (9/2020-8/ 2021) and summary of their perceptions regarding impact.

RESULTS:

We received responses from 17 academic investigators and 17 CBOs. In the aggregate, STOP COVID-19 CA partnerships reported >18,000 surveys and 40 focus groups and reached an estimated 25,000 vulnerable Californians in >500 COVID-19 town halls and vaccine events. In the survey, academic and CBOs emphasized that the Alliance expanded community networks and broadened access to culturally specific COVID-19 messaging and vaccine outreach strategies. They noted accelerated knowledge sharing by learning from the successes and challenges of other sites' COVID-19 initiatives. Academic partners described leveraging the STOP COVID-19 CA network as a platform to reach local, state, and federal policymakers. CBOs expressed concerns about bureaucracy delaying funding for timesensitive COVID-19 CBOs-driven initiatives. Both groups also highlighted the potential for the Sustainability of this Alliance and the need for flexible resources to address the health disparities, conditions, and social determinants of health that predispose their communities to high rates and poor outcomes from COVID-19.

CONCLUSIONS:

STOP COVID-19 CA represents a new and potentially sustainable community engagement model for addressing disparities in multiethnic/multicultural and geographically dispersed communities.
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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: Journal of General Internal Medicine Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: Journal of General Internal Medicine Year: 2022 Document Type: Article