Center for Community Health Equity drives engagement and innovation for equitable care, community wellbeing

We know that nearly 80 percent of our health is influenced by factors outside a doctor’s office, including access to nutritious food and community connection. That’s why our commitment to care extends beyond our hospital and clinic walls.

The M Health Fairview Center for Community Health Equity is enabling our health system to expand critically important health equity and community engagement work. It is helping us grow our efforts to innovate and work with community to address the social determinants of health (like housing and nutrition), with the goal of reducing racial and other health disparities.

The center is located in downtown St. Paul, inside the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub. Read on to learn more about our vision and what this space means for Minnesota.

What has been happening at the center since it opened?

• Convening conversations and bringing together community partners from around the country — and the world – in the Hub Event and Education Center.
• Hosting engaging events that connect people to resources, services, and local community-building projects as part of our “Food is Medicine,” “Housing is Health, and “Connection is Cure” initiatives.
• Partnering with local artists to uplift organizational and local history by adding welcoming and inclusive visuals into the center’s environment.
• Working to document, spread, and scale the partnerships between our academic health system and trusted local organizations to advance community health equity.

Last fall, the center hosted the British-American Project’s health equity panel with leaders from the United States and the United Kingdom, the American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity’s regional Health Equity Summit, and Ramsey County Mental Health and Wellness Action Team’s Cultural Healing Summit. M Health Fairview leaders participated in all three events. In addition, community partners from across the state gathered for M Health Fairview’s Community Impact Summit to share about our progress toward addressing our most significant community health needs.

“It’s important for our health system to engage community partners and to convene and participate in discussions to advance health equity,” said Diane Tran, system executive director of community health equity and engagement. “Through collaboration, we can find creative ways to address challenges, learn from each other, and make significant impact on reducing racial and other disparities in community health outcomes.”

Right before the Thanksgiving 2022 holiday, the center along with the Sanneh Foundation and Minnesota Community Care, held a public event including a community resource fair, flu and COVID-19 vaccine clinic, and wellness services. Local, under resourced families received a fresh turkey (thanks to a donation from Cub Foods) and holiday staples such as vegetables, canned goods, and spices and herbs.

Two new pieces of artwork were recently commissioned by the center for the space at the hub.

• In honor of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and the legacy of their work – long-time partners of M Health Fairview and founders of St. Joseph’s Hospital – a permanent display was erected. The piece is a reminder of the Sisters’ spirit that fuels our everyday work.
  
  
• Local artist Tomás Araya, who emigrated to the United States from Chile in 2018, created a hand-brushed mural that “praises mother nature and Indigenous traditions in a powerful, mystical way.” His goal with the piece was to create a sense of belonging and remind people that healing first comes from within. In that sense, the natural environments remind us of mindfulness, balance, and gratefulness, and these states of mind empower the healing cycles in our life, said Tomás.

The Center for Community Health Equity Work Group, made up of providers and faculty from across our academic health system, continues to advise on the center’s efforts to formalize and publish its approaches and strategies to improve health equity through partnerships with the community.

Why was the center created?

The Center for Community Health Equity is building on M Health Fairview’s long history of community partnership and regional health access programming. It is an evolution of our infrastructure to expand our community partnerships across the Twin Cities and Minnesota, as well as pilot new solutions in close collaboration with our partners at the Fairview Community Health and Wellness Hub.

The center is a place where our community partners and our diverse array of health equity programming can come together and share one physical space, working side by side.

How are we working to improve health equity?

We’ve identified three key strategies to drive improvements in community health equity over the next decade.

1. Addressing the social determinants of health and social factors influencing patient health through expanded programming and partnerships, coupled with research and policy work. By convening and serving as a community innovation incubator, we can identify which solutions are the most impactful, and then scale those to have as broad or deep a reach as possible.

2. Enhancing M Health Fairview’s community engagement infrastructure, which will allow for bi-directional stakeholder engagement. This ensures health system assets and information are shared with community members – and likewise that community resources and insights inform our health system’s approach.

3. Focusing inward to transform our internal structures to create an anti-racist and inclusive environment for our employees and patients. To this end, programming at the center will also support Fairview Health Services’ local hiring, local purchasing, and local investing initiatives to build community wellbeing through building community wealth, knowledge, and capacity.