Health Is Community: A Conversation with ECO Group Facilitator Javi Cabrera-Rosales

The Healthcare Foundation and collaborating agencies On the Margins, Alexander Valley Healthcare, Cloverdale Senior Multipurpose Center, Council on Aging, La Familia Sana, and Nuestra Comunidad, established the Equity Community Organizing (ECO) Group in Cloverdale in 2023, supported by a $225,000 grant from The SCAN Foundation in partnership with the California Health Care Foundation. 

The initiative, which invited in over 20 local and predominantly Spanish-speaking seniors, engages older adults and local stakeholders in identifying and addressing the drivers of health inequities affecting especially low-income Latine seniors in the community. Through monthly bilingual meetings at the Cloverdale Senior Center, which began in January 2024, the ECO Group was designed to empower elders to explore barriers and solutions for aging in health, wellbeing, and community. By centering the voices and experiences of older adults, the ECO Group seeks to foster inclusion, equity, and community-led solutions for healthy aging.

The outcomes thus far have been impressive, with a key success being the creation of a strong, cohesive cohort. The engaged and committed set of relationships among the seniors themselves has made possible frank dialogue and collective action among otherwise highly isolated individuals. Indeed, as the program drew to a close, the Cloverdale seniors comprising the ECO Group expressed a strong desire to keep the group going, and plans are now underway by the Healthcare Foundation and other community partners to support the group in building on its achievements, newfound relationships, and collective power.

​​Cloverdale, situated at the northern edge of Sonoma County, is a small city with a population of approximately 8,900, making it relatively isolated from the county’s more urban centers. This geographic separation contributes to limited access to resources and services commonly available in larger communities. At the same time, a significant portion of the population lives below the federal poverty level, and the median household income is lower than the county average. These factors underscore the need for targeted initiatives like the ECO Group to address health and social disparities in the area.

“We focus first on just being together as human beings, reveling in the laughter and joy and storytelling and food and music, socializing, so that then we can start to deepen our discussions and understanding of the issues and challenges we have.”

Javi Cabrera-Rosales

Javi Cabrera-Rosales, who contracts with On the Margins as a facilitator and organizer, took over the facilitation of the Cloverdale ECO Group in December from On the Margins founder Dra. Daniela (Danny) Domínguez after she began a sabbatical year. Javi credits Danny with establishing a deep-rooted connection with the group, “which involved creating a safe space for people to be themselves,” and goes on to explain:

“That can be challenging when you have different cultures in the room, especially among people who may not be used to sharing feelings. It takes time. Danny took the group through different processes, including what’s called freedom dreaming, and posed questions that allowed for deeper dialogue and open discussion. Once people got to know each other, Danny and the team started a process aimed at identifying some of the challenges and issues group members are facing as seniors within their communities. A running list was kept, and there were activities that allowed for identifying the bigger of these issues and ultimately choosing one to concentrate on as a group. That turned out to be housing.”

What emerged were the specific dynamics around housing insecurity for the population represented by the ECO Group. Javi points to a particular danger, surfaced by the group, especially common in the wake of natural disasters: “When housing is scarce,” increasing pressure on the housing market, “that’s when evictions are attempted, and sometimes successful in pushing people out of the homes they’ve been in for many years.” Javi says this situation “gets a lot more complicated” with undocumented or mixed status households, leaving people with ostensibly few if any options for retaining their home.

The insights into the subject of housing, including its impacts of housing insecurity on the health and wellbeing of seniors, led to the decision to create a petition that would highlight the problem and seek to spur a solution. The draft petition was something Javi continued working on with the group with the expectation of delivering it to the city council. 

Javi emphasizes another important outcome of the ECO Group.

“I distinctly remember our final activity, which allowed people to reflect on what the ECO Group had been for them, and what they received from it. Whether in the form of a drawing, or a poem, or a letter, almost everybody expressed something about the cohesiveness of the group and the connections they have been able to make. It wasn’t just about socializing. It was about finally having a space where they could come together, enjoy each other’s company, eat together, and talk and laugh and cry together.”

Crucially, it was also about the opportunity to connect to various resources, through such things as Know Your Rights presentations, Indigenous herbology offerings, emergency preparedness workshops, and linkages to local social services through La Familia Sana. Adds Javi, 

“I can’t stress enough what connecting to resources has meant to the members of the group—services and opportunities, locally and across Sonoma County, that they’ve discovered through dialogue or been introduced to through various presentations by partnering agencies, and that they never knew existed. Resources and information were able to reach them only because we held that space together. Prior to this, they were in their individual silos, in their homes, without the same access points—not to mention that they reside far outside the county’s main resource hubs, like Santa Rosa, and generally do not have transportation access.”

The outcomes and discoveries above suggest a variety of potential solutions to the challenges facing low-income Latine seniors in Cloverdale and beyond, whether at the level of policy or the built environment. What’s also clear, says Javi, is that “all those pieces are components of the strength, impact and importance of the ECO Group.”

Javi says that the forthcoming final report on the ECO Group’s outcomes will be something to leverage in seeking its continuation in some form. “We want to keep building opportunities for fulfilling some of the basic needs, creating some basic access points to resources and services that can support and improve the health and wellbeing of this community.”

Having a physical space and a programmatic structure with expert facilitation that established trust and comfort were central to the success of the initiative. But equally important was generating a collective sense of belonging.

“When we’re talking about communities whose members have been quite isolated,” notes Javi, “then we have to start on a basic human level. That’s where On the Margins and our community partners come in. In creating a deep partnership with the Group’s participants themselves, we focus first and foremost on just being together as human beings, reveling in the laughter and joy and storytelling and food and music, socializing, so that then we can start to deepen our discussions and understanding of the issues and challenges we have. Then On the Margins and its partners can help curate pathways to address those issues. The petition was a part of that. Our hope is to continue building on this strong social dynamic, and in a shared space where folks can find connection, find friendship, find joy, find a place to express and share what they have to give, and explore pathways towards justice and equity for the communities they are a part of.”