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 Experience
Through our experience in the classroom and abroad, we have witnessed the benefits
of utilizing the community as a discipline in global health
Ghana
India
Salt Lake City, Utah
Peru
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 Philosophies
Bridger 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:
Community as a Unit
Systems Development
Community Based
Local Relevance
Participatory Research
Sustainability
Mutual Benefits to
Partners
Builds on Strengths
and Resources
Collaborative and
Equitable Partnership
Co-learning and
Capacity Building
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