The Seven Pilot Projects

This is a long-term, bidirectional, community-based intervention in Washtenaw County, Michigan for women aged 12+, experiencing personal and systemic barriers to wellbeing. We aim to use resources within the community to help women achieve discrete goals in three arenas: access to healthcare, education for their children, and employment. It is a collaborative project between CORDUSA - Global Network and Corner Health Center, partnering with the Community Action Network of Washtenaw County. We are adapting principles from CORD, based in Himachal Pradesh, India, a community-based organization that has been in place since 1985. The organization is based on 4 pillars: participation, integration, sustainability, and networking. We are adapting these to the local Michigan context by connecting women with resources and volunteers so that they can build programs that fulfill their goals. The 4 Pillar model of CORD is being applied at the Bryant Community Center through the Community Action Network via women’s group discussions and support groups. This model is being adapted and integrated into the Corner Health Center’s programs with marginalized patients, particularly women receiving Maternal & Infant Health Program services, through the implementation of Parent Cafes. Intentional spaces are curated through both programs for parents – primarily moms – to spend time with each other, foster conversation, build community, and as a result, increase hopefulness, improve health, and achieve a greater sense of agency in their lives. 

Community engagement is an essential aspect of global learning for health equity, yet little is known about community members’ perspectives. This proposal sought to use a community power approach to have those most impacted by inequities identify the health equity issue that should be prioritized and explore global learning models to address that inequity in the Midtown Edmondson Community (Baltimore) context. Through focus groups and one-on-one interviews with residents aged 17 to 89, we heard stories of mental health struggles, confusion about health information, housing insecurity, social isolation, and a deep sense of being left behind.  

Using the GL4HE framework, we examined innovative, resourceful international programs—such as the Friendship Bench in Zimbabwe and Act Nairobi in Kenya—and brought those stories back to West Baltimore. The responses were hopeful and honest. Youth expressed curiosity about global approaches to addiction, while elders emphasized the importance of cultural fit and being listened to first. 

So far, the project has clarified community priorities and what residents truly want and need, built bridges between generations, elevated long-overlooked voices, and fostered openness to global partnerships grounded in local practice, reciprocity, and humility. We are now preparing for our next phase: a pilot program that fuses international insights with community wisdom. It will be a space for healing, dialogue, and growth—where Midtown Edmondson residents not only learn from the world but teach it too. 

The purpose is to explore avenues for reciprocal relationships between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) and the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) to improve palliative care services in Tanzania and the United States, specifically in Baltimore. With expertise in community-level palliative, ELCT will share best practices as the largest palliative care provider in Tanzania. UMSON will serve as the epicenter for collaboration with palliative care providers and experts in Baltimore to support the strengthening of ELCT’s programs, clinical guidelines, and clinician training. The ultimate goals are to develop an innovative model of 
community-based palliative care in Baltimore and strengthen ELCT's existing palliative care services in Tanzania. We will explore each other’s programs, identify elements that can be adapted to each setting, determine how these ideas could become solutions to inequities and challenges in each setting and collaborate at each step to support the bidirectional flow of knowledge and ideas. 

Partners from the Athens City-County Health Department, Ohio University, and other area organizations have been working towards making Athens County, Ohio an Age-Friendly certified community through the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities & The WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (GNFACCThis effort officially began in 2021 and through local surveys and focus groups, we identified community priorities including: transportation, access to care, and housing. Our team met with leaders in Japan, Rwanda,, and Slovenia to explore opportunities for bi-directional exchange for ageing supports. We were hosted by the Anton Trstenjak Institute of Gerontology and Intergenerational Relations and the Centre for Health and Development Murska Sobota. 

We met with local leaders, volunteers, caregivers, and older adults. We saw community transportation systems run by volunteers in Domžale,  a co-housing model that supports intergenerational living in Komenda, public spaces and services designed to foster inclusion, connection, and healthy aging in Brezice, and a satellite health station in Gornji Petrovci where community nurses care for local residents throughout their life span. It was obvious that the success of Age-Friendly communities in Slovenia is connected to the support of trusted municipal leaders who listen and respond to community needs and ideas. A Slovenian delegation of municipal leaders and staff from the Anton Trstenjak Institute visited Athens County communities in May and were interested in events and activities that bring people together, shared-use spaces, community traditions or projects that include multiple generations, creative placemaking, and local entrepreneurship. We recognized the value in exploring how other countries support older adults whether that be through an Age-Friendly model or other aging supportive programs. This opportunity taught us that global learning is about building relationships, staying curious, and seeing our own community with fresh eyes.

Rural communities in Montana persistently experience disproportionately high rates of adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections compared to other urban areas. Further, certain ethnic minority groups such as Native American adolescents in rural communities experience poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes compared to their White peers in similar rural settings. In rural Kenya, adolescents experience many similar poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes. To address the rising issues of poor SRH outcomes among adolescents in Kenya, Kenya has adopted policies, community activities, and engagement of health sectors to address the issue.  

In this pilot project, we explored global ideas and knowledge from health promoters in Kenya, regarding their policy, community, and health sectors, to innovate ideas for improving adolescent SRH in rural Montana. Our project facilitated a reciprocal learning experience for partners in rural Kenya and university and tribal partners in Montana to explore solutions for rural and indigenous adolescent SRH equity. While in Kenya, the Montana team visited with policy makers, community organizations, teachers, healthcare workers, parents and adolescents to learn about challenges and solutions for adolescent SRH in rural Kenya.  

Then, our Kenyan partners visited Montana and met with tribal leaders, teachers, community members, and students to learn about challenges and solutions for adolescent SRH on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Through this shared learning, our lessons learned included: 1) Effective solutions to improving SRH equity require policy, community, family, and individual level interventions; 2) There are shared cultural beliefs and practices between traditional Kenyan tribal culture and Indigenous culture in Montana that inform SRH for adolescents; and 3) Providing SRH education and services that reflect the blending of tradition and science are more acceptable and easily adoptable.

The project advances health equity in Cambodian and Southeast Asian immigrant communities in Southern California. Led by The Cambodian Family (TCF), the project implements culturally sensitive mental health models that incorporate both Western and Cambodian community defined evidence practices. The learning component of the project prioritizes the voices and experiences of survivors of the Cambodian genocide and aims to offer innovative methods of assessment and treatment for post-traumatic distress. The project involves many domains of the Global Learning for Health Equity Framework including: explore, identify, contextualize, examine, collaborate, and impact. Two global ideas that are being tested include "Calming the Mind: Healing After Mass Atrocity in Cambodia" in partnership with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Cambodia (TPO Cambodia), and spiritual practices identified by other community partner organizations in Cambodia. The project focuses on health equity and collaboration with community and global innovators, community members, health equity promoters, and researchers.  

As the project is completing its current phase, applying the learning from Cambodia to mental health services in the United States, additional project components have been planned, including: 1) A Cambodian National Mental Health Survey; 2) Development of an international Khmer mental health terminology guide; 3) Cambodia-U.S. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) training initiative; 4) Khmer Mental Health convening in the United States; 5) Joint telemental health services delivery; 6) Exploration of social enterprise opportunities with Cambodian partners; and 7) Establishing a public mental health system in Cambodia. 

As Black Americans, many of us are limited in what we imagine is possible for ourselves and our community. Centuries of confronting the ever-present, ever-changing forms of white supremacy has left us caught in a seemingly perpetual cycle of systemic harm and resulting internalized racism, trauma, and interpersonal harm with little to no reprieve to dream of a better future. This is especially true for those most negatively impacted by our nation’s criminal legal system. In response, the Hood Exchange (HE) supports some of the most under-resourced Black communities in questioning the status quo, gaining a deeper understanding of their endless worth, and recognizing that together we can create healthier options than the ones we have been presented with. The HE does this through immersive cohort-based trips within the African diaspora to expand the imaginations of Black communities. In doing so, the HE is transforming the way we engage with and support one another, helping us better understand our inherent interconnectedness, and increasing the effectiveness of our broader collective efforts to demand more of the systems and structures we engage with. 

For the GL4HE project, the HE sought to explore ways to improve Black mental health, sense of connection and belonging, and overall wellness within historically oppressed and exploited Black communities, particularly heavy-policed and criminalized ones. Specifically, the HE organized a trip to Ghana for a cohort of four Black men in their 20s and early 30s from Atlanta who have spent time in jail and have never travelled outside of the US. The HE also formed an “accompaniment team” made up of a formerly-incarcerated mentor, a therapist, and an anthropologist. Through this experience, and with the relationships they developed with each other and members of the accompaniment team, cohort members gained confidence, self-esteem, community, and a sense of purpose. By exploring and interacting with our global learning partner and others in Ghana, cohort members were also able to expand their understanding of ways other communities care for each other and respond to conflict, compared to what they are used to seeing in the US.