Fourteen community coalitions from across South Texas have been selected for the third session of Methodist Healthcare Ministries’ Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together learning collaborative.
MHM officials said the coalitions are all based in three geographic areas: Bexar County; the mid-border region, including Dimmit, Edwards, Kinney, LaSalle, Maverick, Real, Uvalde, Val Verde and Zavala counties; and the Laredo area, including Webb, Zapata and Jim Hogg counties.
Bexar County’s newest session of Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together will focus on themes, such as improving public safety and socioeconomic conditions in a community, local environmental preservation, and helping people get to job and housing stability with the following groups:
- American Indians in Texas
- The Peace Initiative
- Opportunity Home
- Alamo Workforce Solutions
- Black Freedom Factory
- De Corazon Consulting
- SanArte
- Sustainable G’s
- Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin
- Yanawana Herbolarios
- Corazon Ministries
- Texas Harm Reduction Alliance
- Monster Moms Inc.
- Black Freedom Factory
All chosen groups are starting a six-month learning collaborative in March to explore various frameworks to ultimately equip themselves to develop and implement a health equity strategy for their community, according to MHM officials.
A news release said Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together is a chance for communities to accelerate their journey from health to equity through collaboration among local relevant groups.
MHM officials said they believe communities hold the solutions to improve their health and well-being. The goal of the collaborative is to equip coalitions with skills and resources to strategically advance health equity, using the Pathways to Population Health framework as a guide.
“It has been an invigorating experience for our team as it allows us to have a stronger and deeper level of engagement where we learn and co-create the solutions with people who live, work, pray and play in the communities we serve,” MHM President and CEO Jaime Wesolowski said in a statement.
The first cohort of MHM’s Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together learning collaborative was launched in 2021, with curriculum developed in partnership with We In the World and the Rio Grande Valley Language Justice Collective.
During the learning collaborative, Methodist Healthcare Ministries’ Communities of Solutions team supports the coalitions in developing a multisector collaboration that incorporates persons with recent lived experience of the challenges the coalition is tackling into the coalition’s leadership team, MHM officials said.
The goal is for community coalitions to identify and focus on one vital community condition, such as humane housing or reliable transportation, which contributes to the well-being of the entire community, MHM officials said.
Each coalition creates a strategic framework or plan of action for advancing health equity. The Communities of Solutions team meets regularly with the coalitions, schedules monthly check-ins to build rapport and trust, and offer support as the coalitions learn and grow.
After completing the latest session of the learning collaborative, coalitions are invited to apply to a three-year implementation phase, which includes funding as well as capacity-building resources, the release said.
Although coalitions will focus their time working in community, they will still be invited to collaborate with each other through gatherings as well as peer coaching and learning.
