CANA News

CANA Awarded ComPASS Funding Unique San Francisco Health and Latino Community Collaboration Awarded Multiyear Funding from the National Institutes of Health Contact: Paul S. Flores 415-350-9775  OCTOBER 18, 2023—Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas (CANA), the San Francisco Mission District based organization that produces the annual Carnaval San Francisco, is one of 26 programs across the United States and Puerto Rico territory to be awarded multiyear, multimillion dollar funding from the National Institutes of Health Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS). The SF based project titled “Somos Esenciales: Community Revitalization and Health Through Arts and Entrepreneurship,” (Award Number: 1OT2OD035895-01) is a mutliplatform intervention research project to promote health equity and lasting change for Native, Latino and Black communities in The Mission District. The project brings together the cultural programming and indigenous healing informed community development strategy of CANA with the academic research capacity of the University of California along with community partners like Friendship House, the Mayor’s Office and others.  Somos Esenciales is a unique community research and art intervention project initiated to bring awareness and hold the city accountable to Latino essential workers who had lost livelihood during the COVID pandemic. Conceived in January 2021 by SF Mission based theater maker Paul S. Flores, who teamed