It’s a Matter of Trust: How Thirty Years of History Prepared a Community-Based Organization to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kathleen Marie Coll (), Juana Flores, María Jiménez, Nathalie López, Andrea Lauren Lee, Maria Carrillo, Laura Camberos, Ana Díaz, Enma Delgado, Hortencia Muñoz, Sylvia López, Veronica Nieto, Mirna Ruiz, Taina B. Quiles and Alison K. Cohen
Additional contact information
Kathleen Marie Coll: Department of Politics, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA
Juana Flores: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
María Jiménez: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Nathalie López: School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Andrea Lauren Lee: Independent Researcher, Oakland, CA 94610, USA
Maria Carrillo: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Laura Camberos: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Ana Díaz: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Enma Delgado: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Hortencia Muñoz: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Sylvia López: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Veronica Nieto: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Mirna Ruiz: Mujeres Unidas y Activas, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Taina B. Quiles: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA
Alison K. Cohen: Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic drew public attention to the essential work and vulnerability of low-income Latina immigrants. Less recognized were the ways immigrant community organizations mobilized under exceptional conditions to provide immediate support to their communities while continuing to work toward durable systematic change. This paper analyzes the approach of Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over three decades, MUA developed an organizing model that builds transformative relationships among peers and provides direct services and leadership development for civic engagement. MUA has a long history of research collaborations and self-study aligned with critical community-engaged research methods and values. In 2019, MUA formed a research team of its leaders and academics to analyze the impact of their model. Since data collection occurred between March 2020 and December 2022, the research also documented the organization’s response to COVID-19. This paper argues that specific organizational values and practices of liderazgo , apoyo , and confianza (leadership, support, and trust) proved to be particularly powerful resources for sustaining individuals and community work through the pandemic, enabling women who have experienced multiple forms of structural violence to perceive themselves as capable of healing themselves and their communities while working to address root causes of trauma and inequity.

Keywords: community organization; COVID-19; health equity; immigrant rights; Latinas; violence; healing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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