Key Insights

• •

  Centering equity requires compensating community members fairly, overcoming institutional red tape and tax eligibility concerns.

• •

  A deeply engaged Community of Practice (COP) including trusted local organizations accelerates trust and relevance in health projects.

• •

  Human-centered design phases benefit from low-fidelity prototypes and storyboards to empower meaningful community feedback.

• •

  Involving community partners in decision-making from problem definition to piloting deepens participation and ownership.

• •

  Bringing jargon-free language and clear timelines helps non-designers navigate the ambiguity inherent in human-centered design.

• •

  Pilots integrated authentic health promotora workers from the Latina community to improve patient engagement and follow-up.

• •

  Dual pilots addressed clinical workflow improvements and community healthcare navigation challenges separately but complementarily.

• •

  Sustained organizational change included embedding health promotion roles permanently and expanding HCD training programs locally.

• •

  Flexible innovation must be balanced with realistic expectations about partner capacity to avoid overburdening small organizations.

• •

  Measuring impact combined qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys administered by trusted community health workers.

Notable Quotes