Building Community Health Literacy to Achieve Health Equity: Insights from Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services Community Leader in a County-Level Health Literacy Initiative

Ram Upreti; Kara Saiki; Mary Ann Abrams; Alexandria Jones; Krizia Melendez; Jessica Chevrolet; Heather Pennington; Aaron Leadingham; Denise Martin; Tetine Sentell

doi:10.1089/heq.2023.0069

Building Community Health Literacy to Achieve Health Equity: Insights from Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services Community Leader in a County-Level Health Literacy Initiative

Health Equity. 2023 Sep 13;7(1):592-597. doi: 10.1089/heq.2023.0069. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
² Office of Public Health Studies, Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
³ Center for Child Health Equity and Outcomes Research, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
⁵ Franklin County Public Health, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
⁶ Columbus Public Health, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
⁷ Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Abstract

This perspectives article shares insights from a county-level project in Franklin County, Ohio, to build collective organizational health literacy (HL) capacity across new sustainable networks to advance community-level HL. We provide an overview of the initiative followed by specific insights from a cultural liaison, the article's first author, who works in a community-based organization. He shares his collectivist perspective in building HL capacity at the grassroots level toward community-level goals. A shift in focus from individual responsibility to collective impact represents an important mindset change for attaining HL and builds on community strengths and values toward health equity.

Keywords: Bhutanese Nepalis; New Americans; community; health literacy; public health; stakeholders.