Supporting equitable partnerships takes many forms, from collaborating on grant proposals, to working together to implement and evaluate public health initiatives.
It also can mean engaging local agencies and the Yale School of Public Health community in innovative ways.
This was the case during this year’s annual Winter Celebration as faculty members, students, and staff bought raffle tickets for the chance to win a holiday gift basket.
Susan Nappi, MPH, executive director of the school’s Office of Public Health Practice, and Jason Martinez, MS, director of the Community Impact Lab, said the proceeds would help support Witnesses to Hunger New Haven, a grassroots organization that raises awareness and creates solutions to food insecurity.
It was the third year that the school community came together to contribute to the Winter Celebration gift basket raffle with proceeds benefitting Project Access New Haven (PANH), an agency dedicated to increasing access to medical care and services for underserved patients in New Haven, and Witnesses to Hunger.
The innovative idea to support local agencies with the proceeds from gift basket ticket sales gives real-life meaning to the school’s new vision statement: “Linking science and society, making public health foundational to thriving communities everywhere.” It also supports one of the school’s six strategic priorities, to “foster interconnected, inclusive, interdisciplinary public health communities within and beyond Yale.”
Supporting Community Agencies
This year, a dean’s funding match of up to $500 will further increase the impact of the raffle ticket proceeds for Witnesses to Hunger, an organization of people with firsthand experience of hunger and poverty.
“Given their mission and roots in the New Haven community, and advocacy efforts to ensure equitable access to nutritious food, Witnesses to Hunger is an ideal agency to support during our holiday celebration,” Nappi said.
The funds raised from the raffle will have a direct impact on the agency’s operations, allowing them to meet their immediate needs, specifically, Witnesses to Hunger’s School Break Groceries program.
“The School Break Groceries initiative started in the Spring of 2022 to feed New Haven Public School students and their families when school is not in session and free and reduced meals are not available,” said Susan Harris, a member of Witnesses to Hunger.
However, the need is great, Harris added. “Although we try to distribute about 1,200 bags of groceries every school break, we would love to do more, considering there are over 19,000 students attending New Haven public schools.”
The grocery bags contain fruit, vegetables, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, canned chicken and milk to address a student’s meal gaps when schools are not in session. “The School Break Groceries initiative plays a small but essential part in bolstering the wellness of the kids and families in our city. It is an effective, community-based, concrete step in the direction of health-equity,” said Kim Hart, site leader for Witnesses to Hunger.
Funds raised last year were used to provide gift cards and a cash donation to Project Access New Haven. Giselle Carlotta-McDonald, executive director of PANH, said the gift cards supported individuals with financial, food, housing, transportation, and utility needs. The cash donation supported the purchase of a suction machine for a cancer patient, and a helmet for a young adult with disability.
“The funds didn’t only make a difference for those we serve,” Carlotta-McDonald said. “They also made a huge difference to our community health workers and patient navigators who were able to offer financial support and experience the impact and gratitude from those who received it.”
A History of Working Together
The Yale School of Public Health has a history of working with both agencies. Witnesses to Hunger has partnered with the school in the following ways:
· Witnesses to Hunger is one of the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE) key community and resident partners. CARE provides support including representation at general membership meetings, steering committees, and work groups, contributing expertise and lived experience to enhance and guide food assistance programs and policy development in New Haven.
· Witnesses to Hunger members serve on CARE’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) steering committee, helping to guide strategies.
· Witnesses to Hunger is also an integral part of the Coordinated Food Assistance Network (CFAN), which is also supported by the YSPH Office of Public Health Practice and CARE team members.
The partnership with PANH was strongly solidified when Dr. Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD, professor of public health (social and behavioral sciences) and the director of the Office of Public Health Practice, and Dr. Erica Spatz, MD, MHS, associate professor of cardiology at Yale School of Medicine, and epidemiology (chronic diseases) at Yale School of Public Health, invited PANH Community Health Workers (CHW) to join a study funded by PCORI in 2023 focusing on hypertension screening in New Haven and CHW support with self-management.
Other collaborations include:
· Two CHWs from PANH are also on the research team for the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center’s core research study: Implementation of the Virtual-Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) with Support from CHWs, co-led by Dr. Kathleen O’Connor Duffany PhD, assistant professor of public health (social and behavioral sciences), Beth Comerford, MS, deputy director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, and Perez-Escamilla. In this study, which seeks to improve food security and metabolic outcomes, the CHWs help participants navigate the virtual DPP platform and help them address their social determinants of health needs.
· CARE has funded work with PANH supporting CHWs’ presence in food pantries, connecting clients to services and clinical care through the REACH grant.
· Also, through REACH, CARE partners with Dr. Spatz and her clinical team, and PANH’s CHWs provide support for addressing social determinants of health. The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC) is leading the evaluation of this initiative with support from O’Connor Duffany, Research Assistant Katherine LaMonaca, MPH, and two MPH students.
· PANH serves on CARE’s REACH steering committee.
· PANH has also collaborated on grant proposals, manuscripts, and conference presentations.