Citation

Adkins-Jackson PB, Vázquez E, Henry-Ala FK, Ison JM, Cheney A, Akingbulu J, Starks C, Slay L, Dorsey A, Marmolejo C, Stafford A, Wen J, McCauley MH, Summers L, Bermudez L, Cruz-Roman ZL, Castillo I, Kipke MD, Brown AF. Health Promot. Pract. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Society for Public Health Education, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/15248399221132581

PMID

36419256

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the adverse influence of structural racism and discrimination experienced by historically marginalized communities (e.g., Black, Latino/a/x, Indigenous, and transgender people). Structural racism contributes to trauma-induced health behaviors, increasing exposure to COVID-19 and restricting access to testing and vaccination. This intersection of multiple disadvantages has a negative impact on the mental health of these communities, and interventions addressing collective healing are needed in general and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Share, Trust, Organize, and Partner COVID-19 California Alliance (STOP COVID-19 CA), a statewide collaborative of 11 universities and 75 community partners, includes several workgroups to address gaps in COVID-19 information, vaccine trial participation, and access. One of these workgroups, the Vaccine Hesitancy Workgroup, adopted an anti-racist community-partnered praxis to implement restorative circles in historically marginalized communities to facilitate collective healing due to structural racism and the COVID-19 pandemic. The project resulted in the development of a multilevel pre-intervention restorative process to build or strengthen community-institutional partnerships when procurement of funds has been sought prior to community partnership. This article discusses this workgroup's role in advancing health justice by providing a community-based mental health intervention to marginalized communities in Southern California while using an antiracist praxis tool to develop a successful community-institutional partnership and to live up to the vision of community-based participatory research.

Language: en

Keywords

mental health; community-based; antiracism; CBPR; community–academic partnerships; intervention planning; partnerships; restorative