In the southern part of Minnesota, in and around Minneapolis/St. Paul, an extraordinary partnership formed as the COVID19 pandemic threatened communities. Five networks, representing diverse groups without clear commonalities, joined together to share resources and funding to educate and vaccinate all of their communities. The importance of relationships and trust became the center of this work. As these relationships developed, common threads appeared, including mistrust of healthcare systems, vaccine dosing and safety concerns, epistemologically different frameworks for understanding medicine and health, and historical trauma from forced migrations of their peoples and places where they had roots. These groups identified a shared need for addressing health literacy and taking a broader perspective to health among their communities, focusing not only on COVID19 but also on cancer, HIV, and hepatitis screenings, nutrition, and social determinants of health. These factors are central to the wellbeing of communities, and present challenges for access to health insurance, doctors reflective of the community identities and cultures, and transportation related barriers. Join this webinar and hear directly from partners on how they built relationships across communities, a workplan around their shared goals, what challenges they have faced as the work developed, and how they have navigated divergent and shared needs.

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