East Harlem Action Collaborative for Child Health and Well-being

The East Harlem Action Collaborative (EHAC) is a group of mothers and grandmothers in East Harlem who come together to advocate for programs and policies to ensure that children and families in East Harlem have a fair chance to live a healthy and full life. EHAC is grounded in valuing and elevating the essential voices of community caregivers when making decisions to advance the health and well-being of their children. Their work centers on uplifting community strengths and assets through parent-led advocacy.

EHAC Leaders	EHAC Community Partners
Christina Arroyo	Zakiyyah Abdul-Mateen
Sharon Cotton	Algarabia Language Co-op
Marleny De La Cruz	Angela Donadelle
Mercedes Perez	Rosario Jimenez
Concepcion Sanchez
Cheryl Starks

OUR WORK

A Framework for Uplifting Community Voice and Vision

Together, EHAC and NYAM developed the Resident-led Research Policy and Power (RRPP) Framework, a five-part framework to guide conversations with residents to elicit their program and policy recommendations. RRPP is a strengths-based, action-oriented tool that can support the implementation of community-led and participatory research in a variety of contexts. The group also shared this framework in the Journal of Urban Health.

Resident-led Research Policy and Power Framework (Adapted for the children of East Harlem)

RRPP Theme	RRPP Guiding Questions
Dream It	What are your hopes and dreams for the children of East Harlem?
Support It	What strengths do you, your family, and your community have that can support your vision for the children?
Change It	What changes are needed for you, your family, and your community to be able to achieve your vision for the children?
Measure It	How would you know/measure that you are achieving your goals for the children?
Speak It/Do It	How can you lift your voices and act in support of your hopes and dreams for the children?

Leadership Development
EHAC members participate in regular meetings and courses to strengthen their leadership capacity and skills in research and advocacy. In Spring of 2022, EHAC members participated in a Master’s-level course at the Mount Sinai School of Public Health.

Advocacy
Residents present their work to the community and public and elected officials with a unified voice.

Collaboration
EHAC recognizes that we are not doing this work alone. There are thousands of parents and dozens of parent groups that are working to support the health and well-being of children and their families. EHAC seeks to develop partnerships to share information and resources, and to increase our collective impact. If you would like to connect with EHAC, please contact us via email at ehac@nyam.org.

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

• Developing a Declaration of Rights for Children and Families in East Harlem

Marleny Guzman, member of the East Harlem Action Collaborative delivers opening remarks during the launch event for the Declaration of Rights for Children and Families of East Harlem, a document that describes the social and health conditions that they wa

Cheryl Starks-Payne, member of the East Harlem Action Collaborative reads aloud the Declaration of Rights for Children and Families of East Harlem, a document that describes the social and health conditions that they want for their community.

Concepcion Sanchez, member of the East Harlem Action Collaborative reads aloud the Declaration of Rights for Children and Families of East Harlem, a document that describes the social and health conditions that they want for their community.

Christina Arroyo, member of the East Harlem Action Collaborative reads aloud the Declaration of Rights for Children and Families of East Harlem, a document that describes the social and health conditions that they want for their community.

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• Advocacy for Education
• Recruiting a New Cohort of Parent Advocates

PREVIOUS ACTIVITIES

The Gloria Grants for East Harlem Children and Families
Gloria Maldonado⁺ was integral to the establishment of EHAC. Ms. Maldonado was a Social Worker who spread awareness about EHAC and worked closely with EHAC to ensure they felt empowered and part of the team. Unfortunately, Ms. Maldonado passed away during the height of the pandemic. Nonetheless, she will forever be remembered as part of the EHAC family. In her honor, EHAC provided microgrants titled the Gloria Grants for East Harlem Children and Families to community members in East Harlem who are committed to serving children, youth, and families.

Community Voices
Through photography and art, East Harlem residents expressed hopes and dreams for their children and their neighborhood.

Photovoice is the process of documenting the authentic voices and lived experiences of people through photographs. For the Action Collaborative, Photovoice helped to unify members through their shared experiences and provided a foundation for important discussions about actionable solutions.

Asset Mapping
A collection of formal resources and assets in the community informed by community residents.

The Child S.C.A.L.E. for Health and Well-being

The five domains identified by residents are:

Safety – psychological and neighborhood
Connection to Culture – language, social values, historical context, art
Agency – initiative and independence to make choices
Love – for self and others
Equity – free from interpersonal discrimination and access to quality systems and services