Mi Vida, Mi Voz Community Collaboration Provides Critical Resource Information for Spanish Speaking Community
Santa Barbara, Ca, August 2020 – Due to the current coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, many people in the Spanish-speaking Latino community are not getting the important information they may need for themselves and their families. For years, the Spanish-speaking community has struggled to receive timely, culturally-appropriate information related to emerging needs. In April, Mi Vida, Mi Voz (MVMV), a collaboration of local Latino-serving organizations, pivoted to address this critical need. With the pandemic’s disproportionate health and economic impact in the Latino community, this critical information is more relevant than ever.
Mi Vida, Mi Voz (My Life, My Voice) has been collecting information about community resources in five basic categories: Health; Basic Needs (food, financial support, housing, legal); Mental Health; Children & Families; and Seniors. The initial emphasis has been on health and basic needs information during COVID-19.
“Getting information to the Spanish-speaking Latino community is a challenge for many organizations and for our community as a whole,” said Adriana Marroquin, Community Initiatives Manager at Hospice of Santa Barbara. “The primary strategy by which MVMV will help with the spread of information is by harnessing the collective power of our existing relationship network—people and organizations who we have built trusted relationships with over the years.”
Mi Vida Mi Voz is disseminating this information in Spanish and English by providing direct, easy to use access to a resource website (mividamivoz.com) as a community gathering place for this vital information and by sending out a short weekly newsletter with curated content about current or arising issues. Their partners/champions are comprised of trusted leaders with years of work in the Latino community—making them and their networks ideally situated to get the information into the hands of the people who need it most. Together, these champions, their organizations, and their networks serve tens of thousands of Latino families.
Networks include the Latino Elder Outreach Network (LEON), Family Resource Centers network, Promotores de Salud, LISTOS, Rincon Spanish-Language Radio Stations, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Response Taskforce, Community Wellness Team, Adult & Aging Network, and many other organizations.
Resources for the Spanish-Speaking community can be found online at: https://mividamivoz.com/ For more information, contact Adriana Marroquin at amarroquin@hospiceofsb.org or (805) 705-4846
Mi Vida, Mi Voz
MVMV is a local community collaboration of organizations, sponsored by Hospice of Santa Barbara, focused on end-of-life health issues in the Latino community. These organizations include Carpinteria Children’s Project, Casa De La Raza, City of SB Fire Department, Cottage Health, Family Service Agency, Housing Authority of Santa Barbara, Isla Vista Youth Projects, LISTOS, McDermott-Crockett Mortuary, Promotores De Salud Network, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, and Santa Barbara Unified School Districts.
Hospice of Santa Barbara
Hospice of Santa Barbara provides professional counseling, support groups, and patient care services free of charge to individuals and families who are grieving the death of a loved one or experiencing the impact of a life-threatening illness. Hospice of Santa Barbara also provides counseling in our offices and on fifteen local junior and high school campuses to children and teens who are grieving the loss of a loved one. For more information about Hospice of Santa Barbara, including volunteer opportunities, call (805) 563-8820 or visit www.hospiceofsantabarbara.org.
