Partnership innovations to address social determinants of heatlh in a u.s.-méxico border community

Learn the story of an unusual partnership that has grown into a broad and effective collaboration. In Nogales, Arizona on the U.S.-México border, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and a Community Development Corporation (CDC) have joined forces to meet the needs of the area's low income Hispanic/Latino families. Beginning in 2009, Mariposa Community Health Center and Nogales Community Development recognized that their organizations offered complementary services to the same target population. The two organizations cross-trained staff and then began to jointly apply for funding opportunities to address the local food system, job development, housing rehabilitation and financial literacy. As a result, multiple streams of funding have been obtained from the USDA, HUD and the USDHHS to address local needs. The Cosechando Bienestar (Harvesting Wellbeing) Coalition is developing the local food system via gardening education, farmers' markets and food enterprises, while the Vivir Mejor! (Live Better!) Consortium is addressing healthy eating and active living to prevent and treat diabetes. In 2011, Nogales Community Development formalized the collaboration further by creating the Nogales Rural Innovation Consortium (NRIC), incorporating local higher education institutions, public housing and the local food bank into yet a larger effort that includes development of a joint use community center. In 2012, the NRIC partners completed a household survey in downtown Nogales to learn what services the residents currently use and those services they need. Follow-up with survey respondents then connected residents to needed services, the outcomes of which will be shared as a model for other communities.