The Living Roots Project: Building a community asset and research consortium in Ealing, West London to address health equity

这笔拨款将支持“社区资产和研究伙伴关系”的范围界定和形成，以建立“活根桥”，将西北伦敦（NWL）综合护理系统（ICS）内的社区和公共卫生联系在一起，以解决健康不平等问题。伊灵是伦敦西部一个“超级多元化”的行政区，拥有少数族裔和移民社区，长期以来一直在为种族正义而动员，拥有丰富的文化和社区资产。这些资产包括当地公园，分配，青年中心，充满活力的音乐场景，艺术画廊和食品中心，仅举几例。在这里，与卫生的交叉社会决定因素（包括种族、财富和收入）相关的群体之间在卫生方面存在着巨大的不平等。以伊灵为重点，通过“综合”框架和参与性行动研究，我们将(1)建立对与健康公平和潜在变革领域相关的主要问题的共同理解，(2)绘制和确定社区资产并促进合作，以及(3)探索合作模式，以期建立一个（或多个）社区资产和研究中心，并与NWL ICS建立联系。“综合”方法使我们能够将健康问题视为相互关联的，特别是关注导致弱势群体出现多种健康问题的社会背景。这比通常主导公共卫生思维的“单一疾病”方法更为有力。我们将使用跨学科，包容性的方法，关键是寻求在合作伙伴之间建立信任，并通过可持续的，参与研究联盟促进长期合作，以促进伊灵的系统变革，健康公平和福祉。我们设想这个项目将通过以下方式惠及更广泛的伊灵社区：1)专注于“资产”或基于优势的方法，其中包括更好地理解福祉；2)汇集不同的、也没有被充分代表的声音，采取行动促进该区的健康公平。

This grant will support the scoping and formation of a 'community asset and research partnership' to build a 'living roots bridge' that brings together and explores community and public health linkages within the North West London (NWL) Integrated Care System (ICS) to tackle health inequity. Ealing is a 'superdiverse' borough in West London with racially minoritised and migrant communities, longstanding histories of mobilising for racial justice, and rich cultural and community assets. These assets include local parks, allotments, youth centres, a vibrant music scene, art galleries, and food hubs, to name a few. Here, there are vast inequities in health between groups linked to intersecting social determinants of health, including ethnicity, wealth and income.Focusing on Ealing and through a 'syndemics' framework and participatory action research, we will (1) create shared understandings of the main problems related to health (in)equity and potential areas for change, (2) map and scope community assets and facilitate collaboration, and (3) explore collaborative models with a view to establishing one (or more) community asset and research hubs with linkages to the NWL ICS.A 'syndemics' approach enables us to view health problems as interconnected, specifically looking at the social context which drives multiple health problems in disadvantaged populations. This is more robust than 'single disease' approaches which often dominate public health thinking. We will use transdisciplinary, inclusive approaches which critically, seek to build trust amongst partners, and with the aim of facilitating long-term collaboration through a sustainable, engaged research consortium for systems change, health equity and wellbeing in Ealing.We envision that this project will benefit the wider Ealing community through 1) focusing on an 'assets' or strengths-based approach, which includes a better understanding of wellbeing, and 2) bringing together diverse, and also under-represented, voices to take action on health equity in the borough.