Co-op Case Study: Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative
Have you ever had to settle in a new country, learn a completely new language, adapt to an unknown environment and get familiarized with the culture around you in order to fit in? If you picture yourself in such a situation you may probably experience a kind of isolation and vulnerability. Without knowing what to expect and faced to a barrier due to the inability to communicate, getting information about the system becomes essential. However, what people need -above all- is support. “The kind of support that comes from the hurt”, says Yvonne Chiu, founding member and Co-Executive Director of the Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
The Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative (MCHB Coop) is a workers’ co-op made up of immigrant community workers that support immigrants and refugees through health education, community development and advocacy. The co-op offers various services to newcomers in many languages and at no cost.
Created in 1996 by 12 immigrant women who became involved in culturally responsive peri-natal health outreach and community development in immigrant communities (part of a pilot project of the Public Health Department) the MCHB Coop was formally registered with the Alberta Government under the Cooperative Act on November 30, 1998.
“The MCHB Coop has been established to address the social, economic and political inequities that negatively impact the health and well-being of immigrants and refugees. It seeks to provide culturally and linguistically relevant information and support that enhances family health and well-being, bridge and mediate between immigrant/refugee families and mainstream system, build community capacities for health and well-being, and affect incremental change within systems towards equity and cultural responsiveness,” Yvonne Chiu explained to ICA-Americas Newsletter.
The uniqueness of MCHB Coop is that it was created to serve culturally diverse communities such as Afghan, Arabic-speaking, Chinese, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Filipino, Former Yugoslavian, French-speaking African, Kurdish, Karen, Korean, Iraqi, Iranian, South Asian, Somali, Sudanese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. The worker-members of the MCHB Coop are immigrant and refugee workers who are also members of the communities that they serve. They are front-line service deliverers, community developers as well as joint owners and operators of the Coop. Many of the members of the MCHB Coop are highly educated and skilled professionals whose credentials are not recognized in Canada, and/or trusted natural leaders with extensive networks and skills in community development within their respective communities.
One of the things Yvonne Chiu finds most inspiring about her work is “the dedication and commitment of the co-op members-workers towards social change, their caring devotion towards the immigrant and refugee families that they serve, their capacities to dream and pursue such dreams in spheres of affecting systemic changes and community activism.”
Regarding the challenges ahead, Chiu emphasizes that the formal system still does not recognize the unique needs and strengths of immigrants and refugee communities. “In the absence of relevant policies and funding formula to address the social and economic inequities of immigrant/refugee populations, the MCHB Coop struggles with shouldering the care of a multitude of families without resources or funding support."
As a member of the Co-op, Chiu has spent the past decade exploring a variety of participatory processes to engage immigrants/refugees in making visible their struggles and aspirations for the purpose of community actions and social change. Pursuing its mission the co-op members are building relationships that remove the “us versus them” mentalities between communities and service providers. That’s the path the co-op will continue following.
If you want further information about the MCHB Co-op please contact Yvonne Chiu and other members of the MCHB Coop at (780) 423-1973, or mcch@mchb.org
The MCHB Coop:
