The Together New Haven Project: Focus Groups to Understand Health, Well-Being, and the Interaction of City Government among Historically Marginalized Communities

The purpose of this research is to investigate community well-being among historically marginalized communities within a shared city setting, with implications for programmatic changes within city government. The Social Cognitive Theory framework and seminal and emergent public health literature were used to develop 10 open-ended questions that assessed community mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being. Six virtual focus groups (N = 41) were conducted between June 2020 and November 2021. Participants represented the artist activist, Asian American, Reentry, LGBTQIA+, youth leadership, and faith-based communities. Qualitative analyses observed four meta themes: (community; barriers; access, city government) and 32 subthemes themes (including: action and change; social isolation or connection; family; art; environment; well-being; culture, race, ethnicity; education; mental health; racism, stigma, marginalization; and economic stability and food security). Resources that are specialized, culturally congruent, contextualized, and integrated to promote underserved groups were identified as optimal for community well-being and effective city government partnerships.