Somos Esenciales: Community Revitalization and Health through Latino Arts and Entrepreneurship

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Abstract Somos Esenciales: Community Revitalization and Health through Latino Arts and Entrepreneurship is a comprehensive community revitalization plan led by Cultura y Arte Nativa de Las Americas (CANA) in San Francisco’s Mission District in collaboration with government and community partners, that targets upstream social and policy determinants of health. Structural targets include combining an affordable housing/home ownership initiative, urban gardening and food distribution, harnessing economic development through transforming empty storefronts with Latino entrepreneurship, and providing culturally responsive wellness and mental healthcare. These efforts are a clear continuation and extension of CANA’s work and mission, critical for mental health (e.g., depression and anxiety), physical health (e.g., chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes) and economic well-being of our families and community in a post COVID-19 recovery environment. Central to this collaborative plan is a community-based participatory action research approach with local Latino laborers, domestic workers, and cultural producers, in collaboration with professional health services researchers at UCSF, whose goal together is to identify the relationship between systemic inequities, racial disparities, and physical and mental health outcomes. CANA and its partners will utilize this research as part of the NIH Common Fund launched by the Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society, and to create and implement a multi-platform COVID-19 recovery plan and community revitalization for Latino, Indigenous, and Black residents of San Francisco’s Mission District that brings opportunities for all to thrive through community revitalization and structural interventions focused on home ownership, food access, bilingual health and wellness, and economic workforce development.