Forming A Sustainable Partnership For Improving Refugee Resettlement: The University of Utah Honors College Global

Health Scholars Refugee Partnership

Ashlie Gilbert; Katherine Hobbs; Simran Kaur; Dwight Parker; Sierra Trejos; Brad Weaver; Dr. Stephen Alder

Background• Global Health Scholars (GHS)

• ~20 undergraduate students• Strive to engage and implement sustainable

global health practices at home and abroad• Refugee Services Office (RSO)

• State agency• Created to support and serve refugees

resettling in Utah• Oversees and coordinates all other

resettlement agencies and programs in Utah• Refugee Population In Utah

• RSO estimates 25,000 refugees in Utah – Majority from Somalia, Sudan, and Iraq

• 99% in Salt Lake Valley• Significant challenges faced during

resettlement

The GHS/RSO Partnership

• Community Engaged Scholarship• Partnership Aims:

– equitable collaboration between community members, institutional, and academic partners

– Address challenges in a context of respect and appreciation

– Provide guidance and direction to improve the resettlement process

– Empower community leaders– Help individual refugee families during

resettlement

Results and Conclusions• Results - The Partnership in

Practice– The University of Utah

• Volunteers• Scholarly Model• Liaisons between refugee

community and RSO– The Refugee Services Office

• Trains members of GHS• Coordinates and connects

families and GHS members– The Refugee Community

• Allow students into their homes

• Gain community advocates• Gain additional resettlement

resources

• Conclusions– Benefits the

University as well as the resettled refugee community

– Formation of a Reproducible Model

Community: The Forgotten Discipline in Multidisciplinary Global Health

Isabella Alder, Annah Frisch, Morgan Gallegos, Rosalie Griffin, Harjit Kaur, Kajsa Vlasic, Elysia

Yuen, Rose Zagal, Dr. Stephen Alder

Objective

Our purpose is to show that the community needs to be in concert with the other

disciplines at the global health table. To successfully work toward a common goal, the

community must become an equal collaborator.

Effective global health practice requires a multidisciplinary approach

Global Health ExperienceThrough our experience in the classroom and abroad, we have witnessed the benefits

of utilizing the community as a discipline in global health

Ghana India Peru

Salt Lake City, Utah

Discussion

From our experience working in Peru, Ghana, India and Salt Lake City we have found that the community is an essential component of successful global

health work.

Although the global health model continuously evolves with every project and every community, there needs to be a paradigm shift in the mentality of global

health: the community needs to be an integral and equal partner.

Global Health PhilosophiesBridger Bach; Christopher Orlando; Nancy-Ann Little; Jason Chen; Amy Dursteler; Micheal Young; Dr. Steve Alder

• Historical approach– Focus on delivering services/donations– No concern for local capacity

• CBPR&P represents an alternative:

Sustainability

Community as a UnitBuilds on Strengths and Resources

Collaborative and Equitable Partnership

Co-learning and Capacity BuildingMutual Benefits to

Partners

Local Relevance

Systems Development

Community Based

Participatory Research

Methods

• Global Health Scholars– Provided with opportunities to participate in

global health projects– Trained to make critical assessments

• Retrospective Study– Asked global health scholars to reflect on their

experiences– Evaluate level of community-engagement and its

effect on project outcomes

Experiences

• Limited community engagement– Honduras (Bridger Bach)– Armenia (Chris Orlando)

• Local partnerships– Peru (Katie Hobbs)– India (Chris Orlando)

• Long-term collaborative relationships– Ghana (Kajsa Vlasic)

Results

• Limited-community engagement– May produce some results more quickly, but health improvements

are unsustainable– Does not promote and may undermine local capacity to improve and

maintain health• Strong foundation of community engagement

– Facilitate communication with target communities– Deepens understanding of local health status and determinants– Enhanced ability to collect data, disseminate information, and

implement projects– Work continues between visits– Can produce scalable models that can be implemented on national

level