Current Projects
Our mission is anchored in project-based initiatives aimed at fostering more equitable healthcare access for underserved communities. Our solutions focus on the following key areas:
1) Deeply understanding and redefining problems from varied perspectives.
2) Action Research and data to inform new ways to deliver services.
3) If needed, cross-stitch with an analogue or digital platform which connects stakeholders.
4) Build sustainability via collaborative community learning for the community and health professionals.
Project CrossLearn
Focus areas: Health and Education
Aim: Empower teachers with foundational health knowledge to inform education practices.
Rationale: Health issues can significantly impact a child’s ability to participate and learn at school. Current medical and education systems create barriers for collaboration between doctors and teachers.
Approach: We spoke with families and teachers about how health knowledge might enhance the learning environment. Classroom observations showed us how poor communication about health can lead to staff stress, loss of student engagement and decreased teaching time. Our response is to construct bespoke programs for teachers that include child health knowledge, risk management frameworks and co-designed management plans.
Project CrossReach
Focus Areas: Health and Cultural barriers
Aim: Develop culturally informed resources for a specific minority group in the context of disability. The resources will translate the health and social framework of disability into the person’s cultural context, increasing their confidence to self-advocate and access mainstream health services
Rationale: Most health services rely on language translation alone to decrease cultural barriers. This does not help people self-manage, so they remain disempowered. Consideration of the cultural context will improve self-advocacy.
Approach: Individual and group interviews withe a Participatory Action Research methodology will allow co-designed solutions to emerge over the course of the project.
Project CrossRoads
Focus Areas: Health and Homelessness
Aim: Assist individuals facing homelessness in becoming ideal candidates for permanent housing.
Rationale: Health challenges often hinder the transition out of homelessness.
Approach: By partnering with a provider of temporary housing and conducting interviews with the homeless population, we've developed new methods for collecting health data and implementing community programs.