This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, will explore opportunities to strengthen a systems alignment approach to the refugee resettlement process in Virginia. Structural barriers in housing, healthcare, employment, and education can impede the effectiveness of resettlement and integration efforts. The current consultation process to coordinate refugee arrival and resettlement inadequately addresses these barriers while also failing to meaningfully include representatives from the medical, social, public health, and community sectors.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, tests the feasibility of an integrated system of medical, social and public health programming designed to improve outcomes for youth experiencing homelessness in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The study organizes community-engaged consensus building sessions with stakeholders from medical, social and public health systems and with youth experiencing homelessness in order to co-create strategies for system alignment, including multi-sector data integration, shared clinical practice guidelines, and co-location of health and social services for youth experiencing homelessness.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the effectiveness of California’s CalAIM Medicaid Waiver program in integrating social service and public health organizations into Medicaid coordinated systems of care for individuals with complex health and social needs. CalAIM is designed to dismantle forms of structural racism by investing nearly $2 Billion in helping Medicaid health plans and medical providers forge stronger alliances with local social service organizations and public health agencies in addressing the complex health and social needs of Medicaid beneficiaries, including paying for nonmedical services needed by these beneficiaries.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the feasibility of a multi-sector “Functional Zero” approach to reducing homelessness among fathers in Atlanta, with a focus on Black fathers who are disproportionately represented among homeless populations. The study builds from an existing multi-sector coalition of leaders from medical, social and public health sectors who have formed Fathers Matter ATL to address the unmet health and social needs of homeless fathers, including forms of structural racism that limit the availability of housing options for homeless men with dependent children.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a multisector task-sharing collaborative in addressing the inter-related problems of mental health disorders, poverty, and housing instability among racial and ethnic minority communities residing in Harlem, New York. The collaborative trains the staff at low-income housing agencies and primary care practices to engage in mental health task-sharing, whereby staff deliver basic mental health support services such as screening, psychoeducation, peer support, and referral to mental health specialists.

This study investigates whether a novel type of social bond can pool resources across multiple competing health plans and create stable, long-term financing for interventions that address social determinants of health. The bond's design would allow multiple health plans participating in Minnesota’s Medicaid program to invest collectively in a fund that finances community-based interventions targeting social issues such as food insecurity, housing instability, transportation, and structural racism.