Brookside Community Health Center’s work exemplifies the historic mission of community health centers, which defines health in the broadest of terms and recognizes the connections among health, human rights, and political power and participation.Ĭommunity health centers (CHCs) are respected, trusted agencies within the health care delivery sector and civic society as a whole they are well situated to be responsive and accountable to the needs and values of their communities.

Brookside Community Health Center adapted and redesigned health care to better address SDOH, reaching beyond the traditional social determinants to address underlying factors, the drivers of those SDOH: fortifying social networks and social cohesion, political power, political voice, and protest. The authors describe the response of a community health center that serves a largely Latinx population. At the same time, highly visible violence against Black people, including multiple killings by police, highlighted race and racism as a pivotal social determinant of health (SDOH). The Covid-19 pandemic exposed and intensified health inequities that caused disproportionately higher rates of infection, morbidity, and mortality in marginalized and disadvantaged communities, along with greater social and economic devastation.

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