- Sacred Path will provide supportive services, referrals, or linkages to community members for COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and other mitigation strategies. Referral and Linkages will be made to 75 community members and Sacred Path will keep track of what referrals and linkages were made. Sacred Path will continue to expand on our community partners for referrals and linkages.
- Sacred Path will conduct outreach and engagement activities related to COVID-19 responses and recovery. Sacred Path will conduct Community Forums and Focus Groups to engage the community on the needs of the AIAN community in Orange County.
The program staff will conduct 3 community forums throughout the year of the program, to facilitate the acquisition of qualitative and quantitative data regarding the community’s needs. The program staff will conduct 3 focus groups within the AIAN community, including parents and children/youth, educators, elders, service providers, and policymakers, to gather specific data on desired services that are deemed culturally and linguistically appropriate.
The Community forums and focus groups will consist of community members who are interested in the Project and efforts will be made to include youth of various ages, parents, community members, elders and service provider staff. Sacred Path will rely upon the feedback and consultation from these groups to plan, implement, evaluate and modify the project to continue with sustainability and build on the capacity of Sacred Path to continue to provide services in Orange County.
Sacred Path will host a cultural gatherings and provide cultural activities every two months to reach 75 community members, as well as have discussions on health related issue, resources in Orange County with the focus on the health of our AIAN community and resources.
Sacred Path will attend Fairs and Conferences to share information about the work of Sacred Path and to share demographics info on the AI/AN community. We will create partnerships with tribes whose members reside in Orange County. This includes partnerships with tribes like Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, San Manuel Band of Missio. We will attend local college campuses, virtual college fairs, and outreach to local college campus leaders to share information about programs and COVID-19 related information. Sacred Path will complete 15 outreach efforts in Orange County.
- Sacred Path will disseminate COVID-19 and other health disparities-related information to community members at our community forums and gatherings, as well as at all outreach events. Sacred Path will utilized our email list to disseminate COVID-19 and other health disparities related information to the community. We will conduct 3 email campaigns focused on health disparities. Each of these campaigns will reach over 300 individuals.
- How have you incorporated community voice/narrative into the health equity work in the past two years? How do you see this changing in the upcoming year?
Sacred Path has worked with the community to listen to what services are needed and what supports our AIAN community needs. Unfortunately, there is not many culturally relevant services for AIANs in Orange County. They would like more cultural activities and community gatherings. Through the work that we have done, culture and community are important in providing protective factors and resilience for the AIAN community. In the upcoming year, Sacred Path will increase our connection to the AIAN community and work with the community to provide more services that they identify. Outreaching to and engaging with community residents to encourage participation in various Equity in OC Initiative activities, including Equity in OC Taskforce, Social Determinants of Health Action Areas, and other related activities will ensure that the community voice is being heard.
- What data or infrastructure capacity needs do you have to make your organization better meet its health equity goals?
Sacred Path maintains a data system to collect data in terms of number of participants, events, focus groups and community gathering held. We will collect data on materials we disseminated to the community, what types and to how many people. Sacred Path will analyze the data and report out on the data. There is not much data on AIANs in Orange County, so Sacred Path will build on our infrastructure around data to find other means to collect more data on this underrepresented population.
Sacred Path will develop our infrastructure to continue to expand and provide services to Orange County AIAN community. Sacred Path applied for a three-year SAMHSA Circles of Care grant to develop a System of Care in Orange County, this will include, Behavioral Health, Health, housing services, education, cultural and other areas that the community identifies. Sacred Path will participate in HCA-related health equity activities (e.g., Equity in OC Taskforce, Social Determinants of Health Action Areas Workstreams, population-specific health equity collectives) to ensure impacted community voices are heard, and part of the planning and implementation process.
Sacred Path will attend at least two Equity in OC Initiative trainings per year (Equity in OC Initiative and its partners will facilitate trainings on topics including, but not limited to, equity, population health, and social determinants of health).
Sacred Path will attend at least one HCA training/presentation per year (HCA will facilitate trainings on topics including, but not limited to, equitable contracting and equitable procurement). All of these will assist in creating infrastructure capacity for Sacred Path to continue to provide services in Orange County.