Health Services Prevention and Early Intervention Community Engagement

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

In April 2009, Sonoma County Health Services convened a Mental Health Prevention and Early Intervention and Planning Committee to identify projects that effectively address the county’s underserved ethnic and cultural populations. A formal community engagement effort formed with a goal set to improve access and reduce disparities through the delivery of culturally competent services. Accessibility to all linguistic, cultural, and ethnic communities offered in a way that accounts for diverse cultural and ethnic experiences and perspectives guided the process. To accomplish this goal, the Planning Committee developed a process to ensure inclusion of a diverse pool of participants at all levels of the request for proposal process by undertaking a dynamic outreach effort to engage individual community members in process planning, project proposal submission, and participation in the selection of projects for funding. The outreach planning objectives set forth a communication strategy to identify training and technical assistance needs by grassroots and other community organizations wishing to submit project proposals; and inclusion of community members representing diverse cultural and ethnic populations in recruitment and training opportunities.