Leveraging limited resources: Experiences of a community health center from REACH 2010 to REACH US

During periods of economic hardship, community organizations are faced with meeting escalating community needs, in the midst of shrinking resources. Community health clinics, which serve large proportions of people of color and other vulnerable populations, have been hard hit by funding cuts and have needed to reprioritize programming for their patients. The aim of this paper is to describe how the REACH program at Sea Mar Community Health Centers was able to leverage increasingly stretched funds to address the needs of its patients with, or at risk for, diabetes through community collaborations that improved access, availability and affordability of healthful eating and physical activity opportunities, behavioral and environmental determinants that contribute to diabetes risk. We identify elements that contributed to the success of Sea Mar REACH's efforts, particularly the partnerships formed to leverage resources, as well as barriers encountered and how some of these obstacles were overcome. Despite limited funds, Sea Mar REACH successfully collaborated with local partners, including an urban farm, to launch a community kitchen and youth soccer league, as means to increase understanding of and affordable access to healthful eating and active living. Using media tools, such as digital storytelling, they captured residents' stories about life with diabetes and mobilized residents to advocate for their own and the Latino community's health using these stories. The experiences of Sea Mar REACH demonstrate how a vision for addressing broader diabetes determinants, coupled with valuable partnerships, can be successfully leveraged to support diabetes prevention efforts, despite difficult financial times.