SOMOS ESENCIALES:
Community Revitalization & Health through Arts and Entrepreneurship
Somos Esenciales (Award#1OT2OD035895-01) is a folklife–based participatory action research and intervention project by CANA, UC Riverside, Friendship House and Somos Esenciales.
LATEST NEWS
COMMUNITY FORUM DOCUMENTATION: SPOTLIGHT ON VENDORS
Directed by Somos Esenciales videographer and documentary film director Rafael Flores of Hidden Gem Studios.
October 15, 2024—Community forum documentation of street vendor and entrepreneurship activities as both an economic and cultural expression of the neighborhood is key to detailing our investigations into permitting issues and policies for street vendors in The Mission District.
This trailer features street vendor Luis Lendesma and the challenges he and his family face. The full documentary will be released in November 2024.
ABOUT SOMOS ESENCIALES
The SF–based project titled “Somos Esenciales: Community Revitalization and Health Through Arts and Entrepreneurship,” is a multiplatform intervention project to promote health equity and lasting change for Native, Latino and Black communities in San Francisco. The award will provide CANA 5–10 years of multimillion dollar funding from the National Institutes of Health to coordinate an outstanding new community research project.
This project combines intervention research and evaluation with cultural programming and indigenous healing–informed community development strategy, with the academic research capacity of the University of California along with community partners like Friendship House, the Mayor’s Office and others.
" We are aiming to advance health equity to ensure every person can attain their full health potential. "
Utilizing cultural arts and indigenous practices, CANA and Somos Esenciales’ intention is to provide opportunities for all to thrive via structural interventions focused on home ownership, food access, bilingual health and wellness, and economic workforce development.
OUR RESEARCHERS & BOARD
Shaping structural intervention involves meeting with our academic researchers, community researchers (Health Promotores), our youth advisory board, and the CANA and Somos Esenciales teams to first, develop relationships within the community and build camaraderie and trust, and to ultimately inform on what systemic inequities, racial disparities, and physical and mental health issues need addressing. Together we formed a Health Equity Research Assembly (HERA) Board. In many instances our HERA board members are representative of the communities our interventions will affect.
- Housing: Financial Literacy, Generational Wealth
- Food Access: Urban Farming
- Health & Wellness: Health Access, Cultural Arts & Indigenous Healing
- Economic Workforce Development: Entrepreneurship, Vending
ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS
Michelle Porche, Senior Researcher / Academic Partner, UC RIverside
Daniel Lee, Senior Research Data Analyst, UC Riverside
Karina Bañuelos, Site Principal Investigator, Friendship House
Adriana Camarena, Research Supervisor, Somos Esenciales
Jaime Smith, Director of CREER (Community Responsive and Engaged Equity Research (CREER) in Mental Health, UC Riverside
Stephany Garcia, Research Supervisor of CREER in Mental Health, UC Riverside
Paula Mendoza, PostDoc Employee, Psychiatry and Neuroscience Dept, UC Riverside
A Somos Esenciales Director and Co–PI Paul Flores, CANA CEO and Co–PI Roberto Hernandez, and Academic Researchers Karina Banuelos, Lisa Fortuna, and Jaime Smith.
PROMOTORAS (COMMUNITY RESEARCHERS)
Our Community Researchers are key to informing the project on our community’s needs. They are uniquely suited for their role because they value the knowledge of their community, are experts informed by the community, work with empathy and compassion, work for the benefit of our community, and listen and maintain confidentiality.
Their process involves asking their own questions, offering their stories as a starting point, talking to people in spaces where they all feel comfortable, connecting personally with their research, learning together, documenting their learning in ways compatible with their lives, presenting their own work, and deciding together to use their research. It is the fruit of their work and a cultural treasure of their community that they care for.
- Ana Alfaro, Domestic Worker
- Evelin Alfaro, Domestic Worker
- Elena Coto, Nanny
- Carmela, Chef
- Connie Rivera, Small Business Owner
- Dara Montejo, Student
- Haydee Pozos, Banquet Food Supplier
- Ricardo Peña, Small Business Owner
- José Guadalupe Regla, Dishwasher
- Martin Rodriguez, Building Manager
- Daniel Salazar, Bus Driver
- Reina Sierra, Domestic Worker
- Jual Ulloa, Truck Driver
- Veronica Uribe, Cashier
- Adriana Camarena, Facilitator and Editor
- Paul Flores, Facilitator and Founder
The Somos Esenciales Promotores on a hike. The inset on the image says, “We Developed A Sense Of Purpose. We want to be the anti–COVID. We want to transform pain. We want to spread a contagion of good mental wellness practices for everyone. Our purpose is to support the healing of our cummunity by promoting spaces dedicated to emotional relief (desahogo) and mental well–being.
A small family playing Long–COVID Loteria at the Somos Esenciales booth at the 2024 Fiestas de Las Americas Festival. A Somos Esenciales Promotora is helping the family play the game as they look down at the colorful Loteria Cards on a table.
Central to this collaborative plan is Somos Esenciales’ community-based participatory action research (PAR) approach with local laborers, domestic workers, and cultural producers, in collaboration with health services research partners at Friendship House, UCSF and UC Riverside. Our goal together is to identify the relationship between systemic inequities, racial disparities, and physical and mental health outcomes affecting our Latino, Indigenous, and Black community.
CANA and its partners are working toward this goal with funding from the NIH Common Fund, and with support of the ComPASS (Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society) Program. This research will be utilized to provide community revitalization for Latino, Indigenous, and Black residents of San Francisco, in addition to creating and implementing a multi-platform COVID-19 recovery plan. Our intent is to provide opportunities for all to thrive via structural interventions focused on home ownership, food access, bilingual health and wellness, and economic workforce development.
OUR HERA BOARD
A group of HERA Board Members, CANA & Somos Esenciales representatives, and translators from BienStar Consulting pose together at the July 24, 2024 HERA Board Meeting.
Millie Lopez, Street Vendor
Efrain Barrera, Director, Latino Task Force
Angelica Segura Brandi, Fund Development Associate, Friendship House
Isela Ford, COVID Community Response & Recovery Manager, San Francisco Department of Public Health
Marisol Guillen, Mission Food Hub
Venecia Margarita, Social Worker, Board Member at CANA (Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Américas)
Paula Fleisher, Director of Research IDEA/Vice Chancellor, University of California Clinical & Translational Science Institute
Ariel Vargas, University of California Clinical & Translational Science Institute
Oscar Grande, Sr. Community Development Specialist, San Francisco Planning
Taina Saenz, Youth Representative
Guillermina Castellanos, Organizer, Women’s Collective
Francisco Herrera, The Day Labor Program
Eva Alfaro, Excelsior Strong
Uzuri Pease–Green, Executive Director, C.A.R.E.
Monica Almendral, Director of Housing – Housing Program, Young Community Developers
PARTNERS
