Power-building Partnerships for Health: Lessons from Santa Barbara About Building Power to Protect Farmworker Health and Advance Health Equity

This brief describes work to partner health departments with community organizing groups, focusing on a collaboration between Santa Barbara County Public Health Department and two community organizations. These partnerships allow health departments to actively address power imbalances that may decrease community trust in health departments. The Santa Barbara Public Health Department developed an analysis of power and worked directly with grassroots organizers. To build trust, the health department undertook many actions, including sharing organizational charts, explaining decisions, facilitating personal sharing and trust exercises, spending time together, discussing structural racism, and more. During COVID-19, these partners shared information targeted towards those with various languages and literacy levels.

Resource Details

• Population: Hispanic, Latino, or Latinx
• Topics of Practice: Organizational Change/ Development|Outreach/ Education/ Communications
• Outcomes of Interest: Partnership Building|Reduction of Health Disparities
• Level of Evidence: Promising
• Tools or Materials Included in Resource: No
• Social Determinants of Health: Economic Stability|Social and Community Context
• Outside of US: No