Clinical-Community Partnerships
Bridging health care and community to expand access to the information, resources, and care communities need to thrive.
Objective
Through community-engaged research, peer-based health education, and strengthened referral pathways, we are deepening community members' connections to care that reflects their needs and values.
About
We are building partnerships that bring health care and community together, co-creating solutions that reflect the strengths and priorities of the people they serve.
Individuals often face barriers to care, from medical mistrust to navigation challenges and unmet social needs, yet clinics and community organizations rarely have the shared tools and relationships to address them together.
Community members hold deep knowledge about their own health, and when research, clinical care, and community leadership connect, care becomes more trusted, accessible, and responsive to real needs.
We partner with community organizations, health care providers, and researchers to support individuals navigating long COVID, bridge academic research with community wisdom and priorities, and integrate clinical care into community-led grassroots initiatives, strengthening the pathways that connect residents to the information, resources, and care they need to thrive.
To see people’s faces full of happiness and admiration when they receive the Long COVID information I provide them, and in their own language too, fills me with such gratitude and happiness in my heart because I say ‘Wow, how beautiful to share the information that I was able to learn with the community as well.’
Elsa Flores, Long COVID Ambassador
Partners
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Our Initiatives
Long Covid
With support from the Thoracic Foundation, we partner with Boston Medical Center, the Massachusetts Community Engagement Alliance, and the Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association to hire and train community members to provide multilingual information and support around Long COVID and a similar condition called ME/CFS.
Our ambassadors also ethically collect stories of lived experience from community members living with Long COVID, an effort aimed at amplifying these voices to improve care for this population.
Community-Engaged Research
At Vital CxNs, we use our Community-Led Systems Change Model to help health care systems and clinical partners engage communities as active partners in research. We bridge community knowledge, relationships, and lived experience with research design and implementation, from mapping how health information moves through social networks to identifying trusted messengers. Together, we generate insights grounded in real-world relationships that inform more responsive, equitable approaches to health.
Community Health Hubs
Our Community Health Hubs began during COVID-19 to bring health and social resources into trusted community spaces. They grew into a multi-year collaboration among community organizations, leaders, and institutions, offering health screenings, food resources, benefits enrollment, mental wellness support, and more. Along the way, we learned our greatest value lies in facilitating cross-sector connections. That insight inspired the Vital Connector Network, which strengthens coordination among partners across the ecosystem.
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Could Add a GIF here, so circle through diff photos from diff initiatives
Our Initiatives
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With support from the Thoracic Foundation, we partner with Boston Medical Center, the Massachusetts Community Engagement Alliance, and the Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association to hire and train community members to provide multilingual information and support around Long COVID and a similar condition called ME/CFS.
Our ambassadors also ethically collect stories of lived experience from community members living with Long COVID, an effort aimed at amplifying these voices to improve care for this population.
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At Vital CxNs, we use our Community-Led Systems Change Model to help health care systems and clinical partners engage communities as active partners in research. We bridge community knowledge, relationships, and lived experience with research design and implementation, from mapping how health information moves through social networks to identifying trusted messengers. Together, we generate insights grounded in real-world relationships that inform more responsive, equitable approaches to health.
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Our Community Health Hubs began during COVID-19 to bring health and social resources into trusted community spaces. They grew into a multi-year collaboration among community organizations, leaders, and institutions, offering health screenings, food resources, benefits enrollment, mental wellness support, and more. Along the way, we learned our greatest value lies in facilitating cross-sector connections. That insight inspired the Vital Connector Network, which strengthens coordination among partners across the ecosystem.
Option #3 for Subsection layout
Our Initiatives
Long Covid
With support from the Thoracic Foundation, we partner with Boston Medical Center, the Massachusetts Community Engagement Alliance, and the Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association to hire and train community members to provide multilingual information and support around Long COVID and a similar condition called ME/CFS.
Our ambassadors also ethically collect stories of lived experience from community members living with Long COVID, an effort aimed at amplifying these voices to improve care for this population.
Community-Engaged Research
At Vital CxNs, we use our Community-Led Systems Change Model to help health care systems and clinical partners engage communities as active partners in research. We bridge community knowledge, relationships, and lived experience with research design and implementation, from mapping how health information moves through social networks to identifying trusted messengers. Together, we generate insights grounded in real-world relationships that inform more responsive, equitable approaches to health.
Community Health Hubs
Our Community Health Hubs began during COVID-19 to bring health and social resources into trusted community spaces. They grew into a multi-year collaboration among community organizations, leaders, and institutions, offering health screenings, food resources, benefits enrollment, mental wellness support, and more. Along the way, we learned our greatest value lies in facilitating cross-sector connections. That insight inspired the Vital Connector Network, which strengthens coordination among partners across the ecosystem.
The Work in Action
Coordinate food resource distribution, preventive health screenings, and SNAP peer outreach via Fresh Truck’s CHH.
Streamline yoga, meditation, fitness, and behavioral health support by bringing community-responsive services to All Dorchester Sports and Leadership, a trusted community organization.
Align food distribution and SNAP enrollment with COVID-19 prevention and protection efforts by partnering with ABCD to pilot a CHH at their sites in East Boston and Mattapan.
Impact to Date*
1,682
Community health interactions
829
People connected to Long COVID/ME information & resources
* 2025
