Community Engagement

Please see the resources below for information & tips on the CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Community Engagement Initiative.

• CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Community Engagement Guidance and Resources

• Presentations

  • • CFHL, UC Community Engagement Workgroup Presentation
• External Community Engagement Resources

• Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA)

  • • ASNNA Guiding Principles to Embed Equity in SNAP-Ed - Race, Health, Social Equity Committee
     

  Public Health Institute Center for Wellness and Nutrition

  • • Community Engagement Toolkit: A Participatory Action Approach Towards Health Equity and Justice

The list below contains commonly used Community Engagement strategies supported by the CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Program.

• Stanford University School of Medicine's Our Voice: Citizen Science Promoting Health for All

• CFHL, UC partners with Stanford University School of Medicine to utilize Stanford’s Our Voice: Citizen Science Promoting Health for All initiative for engaging community members as citizen scientists in exploring and identifying assets and barriers to health in their communities and activating change.

  • • CFHL, UC Our Voice projects are supported through a collaboration with the Our Voice Citizen Science Research Initiative at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

    • These projects support community members in gathering, analyzing, and using their own data to help make their communities healthier for all (i.e., to advance health equity).

    • The gateway to the Our Voice process is an easy-to-use, multilingual mobile app called the Discovery Tool, which allows users to take geotagged photos and add comments and ratings that reflect their lived experience – and their expertise – in the community.

    • Our Voice projects around the world have been shown to increase social cohesion, self and collective efficacy, and community engagement in building healthy communities. They have also informed – and sparked – changes in physical and social environments that give all community members better access to living healthy and vital lives.

  For more information about each of the CFHL, UCCE Our Voice projects, check out the Stanford Medicine project pages linked below.

  • • CalFresh Healthy Living, UC Spotlight
  • • CalFresh Healthy Living, UC: Placerville – El Dorado, CA
  • • CalFresh Healthy Living, UC: South Lake Tahoe – El Dorado, CA
  • • CalFresh Healthy Living, UC: Calexico – Imperial County, CA
  • • CalFresh Healthy Living, UC: Bakersfield – Kern County, CA
  • • CalFresh Healthy Living, UC: Riverside – Riverside County, CA
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  By utilizing Stanford’s Our Voice approach, CFHL, UCCE teams center voices of CalFresh-eligible adult, youth, and multigenerational groups of community members in assessing access to physical activity and access to fresh fruits and vegetables. In support of health equity, the community leads the direction for change to improve and support their health.

  The photos and descriptions below provide examples from the field of CFHL, UCCE Our Voice projects. 

  

  Adults in Placerville, El Dorado County identified a need for speed limit signage as their community walking path traverses a parking lot. The citizen scientists’ presentation led to the site’s insurance company funding and installing signage.

  

  In South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County (left) and Kern County (right), parents and adults determined lack of sidewalks a barrier to being physically active, both in walking to and from school (Kern County) and walking for exercise in the community (South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County).

CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE Imperial County facilitated community engagement with an intergenerational lens, supporting 15 high school youth and 10 older adults in using Stanford’s Our Voice approach to explore assets and barriers to engaging in physical activity in their neighborhoods. Participants developed the research question “What makes it easy or hard to walk in neighborhoods of Calexico” and used the Discovery Tool app to collect data by taking photos, capturing comments, and geotagging assets and barriers. Additional data was collected around physical activity access by expanding the research question to “What makes it easy or hard to walk, job, or roll (wheelchair, bicycle, skate) in Imperial County?” Participants identified themes to support improving opportunities to be physically active, including repairing and paving sidewalks, repainting and adding crosswalks, installing bicycle lanes and streetlights, and adding shade, benches, and water fountains to community spaces where residents walk. Youth and older adults planned and prepared a presentation with CFHL, UCCE to share project findings and seek support from other local organizations to implement their recommendations to improve health through physical activity opportunities in Imperial County.

Check out CFHL, UCCE Imperial County's community engagement highlight.

In this park there is only one big tree and no benches, so if seniors come over and start walking and get tired, there's no place to rest. There is no walking path and no lighting if someone wants to walk at night to avoid high temperatures in the summer. We need places to sit and water fountains to drink from."

– Older adult participating in Our Voice with CFHL, UCCE

Please email Kelley Brian to share stories, photos, or other items you would like to see featured in CalFresh Healthy Living, UC's Community Engagement highlights.