Community Level Health Project (CLHP) – Everett is administered by the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center and comprised of a diverse group of stakeholders from the catchment area of the Everett casino representing those impacted by casino gambling, particularly those who are racial minorities and linguistically and culturally isolated which includes community-based agencies, community health centers, and a regional planning agency. Using the two frameworks of the social determinants of health and community engagement, the goal of the CLHP was to identify a health priority concern for the catchment area and make a data-driven and community-prioritized recommendation to MDPH for how to address gambling-related problems.

Priority Health Concern: Improving behavioral health, racial equity, and access to culturally appropriate services.

Priority Population(s): Asian American, Haitian, and Latinx immigrant communities.

Strategy to Address Priority Health Concern:
Project RISE (Resilient Immigrants Striving for Equity) is for the community by the community and recognizes that community members are the experts about what is happening around them and what strategies should be advanced. Project RISE is strengthening the fabric of immigrant communities to provide ongoing support around emotional wellness and create a sense of belonging and togetherness. The project is facilitated in partnership with three host agencies, community-based organizations serving the metropolitan area:

• Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC)
• Everett Haitian Community Center (EHCC)
• Eliot Family Resource Center (FRC) is a two-phased intervention that involves:

It is a two-phased intervention that includes:

1. Capacity-building: This involves establishing the structures to sustain work, including hiring, onboarding, and engaging in the workforce development of family connectors with bilingual and bicultural capacity
2. Delivery of programs and services to support community emotional wellness and behavioral health as well as policy work to create systems change.

Project RISE addresses behavioral health, based in community-led and community-based service delivery, such that the implementation of services is caring, flexible, and equitable. According to the community input and content experts, immigrant behavioral health outcomes, such as stress, financial distress, and a sense of otherness or a lack of belonging, are existing health issues of great concern which have been created and/or exacerbated by casino gambling. Central and critical to the design, delivery, and evaluation of Project RISE is the role of community-serving agencies such as community- based organizations, faith-based institutions, and community health centers that are led by, staffed with, and rooted in the racial and ethnic communities impacted by casino gambling.

Find out more about the project below:

• Community Level Health Project Everett Massachusetts: Planning Year Report June 2021
• Project RISE (Resilient Immigrants Striving for Equity) Website