Team Members
- Marisela Gomez, MD, PhD, MPH, MS
- Sabriya Linton, PhD, MPH
- Dorcas Gilmore, JD
Research Project Description
Our project will address the impact of strategies that train residents on 1) health and financial literacy and 2) how to become financial co-investors during community development processes. We will determine how these health and financial strategies impact the social capital and wellbeing of residents during a development project. Pre- and post-interviews- including surveys and open-ended questions- will be conducted with participants of these trainings to assess residents’ self-reported stress, self-reported general physical and mental health, access to social capital, perceptions of collective efficacy, and health and financial literacy. Training will enable participants to qualify to become investors in a community investment trust fund project mediated through Village of Love and Resistance. Analysis of data collected and recommendations will be disseminated back to participants as an incentive to proceed with investment opportunities in the near future, organize for power, and engage in continued health and financial literacy in general. In collaboration with the Baltimore Black Worker Center, we will incorporate a connection between financial and health literacy and worker organizing to support economic security. The findings from this project will instruct health officials as to the role of financial and health literacy and investment opportunities on perceived health and well-being and social capital while preventing forced displacement and related adverse-effects of urban redevelopment of local residents. Such information can encourage public health researchers and practitioners to integrate economic empowerment and community organizing for power within the delivery of health interventions, recognize the efficacy and resultant support for directly involving affected residents in the development of their communities.
Team Members
Marisela Gomez, MD, PhD, MPH, MS
Dr. Gomez is a Council member of Village of Love and Resistance and Baltimore Black Worker Center in Baltimore, Maryland. She has been organizing and researching in regard social determinants of health with a focus on racial, housing and economic inequity and community rebuilding for the past 30 years.
Sabriya Linton, PhD, MPH
Dr. Linton is an Assistant Professor of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research expertise includes investigating the social epidemiology of substance abuse, HIV and housing insecurity, with specific focus on elucidating the impact of social context, community development and housing policies on these outcomes.
Dorcas Gilmore, JD
Ms. Gilmore is a Coordinating Committee Member of the Baltimore Black Worker Center. She has focused her advocacy and research on equitable development in communities of color. She is also a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law directing the Small Business & Community Equity Development Clinic.
