Juntos, a digital health intervention for Latino MSM and TW, seeks to provide health resources through an easy-to-use, web-based platform.
Published December 9, 2014, last updated on October 5, 2017 under Voices of DGHI
Jemi Galani
Bass Connections
Over the past decade, we have seen an immense increase in interest for the field of social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship differs from classic entrepreneurship in one aspect: the purpose of creation. Social entrepreneurs are developing innovative business models that blend traditional capitalism with solutions that address the long-term needs of our planet. They improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches, and advance sustainable solutions that create social value.
For about a year, I, along with the rest of the Juntos team, in collaboration with our community partners, El Centro Hispano, have been designing a digital health intervention targeted towards Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) and transwomen (TW). After conducting preliminary literature reviews and compiling our results from formative interviews, it was apparent that there was a need for such a resource within the Latino MSM and TW community. Utilizing the feedback we received to address the needs of the population, we mapped out two versions of this website – an ideal one and a practical one. The practical version consisted of elements from our ideal version that we could recreate, keeping in mind our budget and technical expertise.
With our project drawing to a close at the end of the month, we have reached the point where we will not be able to create the ideal digital health version we had originally intended to without additional funding (oh, the horrors of research). However, all of us have become so attached to this project that we want to see it expand to achieve its full potential. We explored avenues of obtaining extra funding when we came across two outstanding opportunities: the Duke Start-Up Challenge and the Clinton Global Initiative University. I clearly remember our team meeting when I suggested that we enter Juntos into the Duke Start-Up Challenge - everyone’s facial expressions of utter confusion and one consensus: “But we’re not a business. We’re just doing research.” It was at this moment that made me realize how truly interdisciplinary almost everything is. A global health research project combining the disciplines of healthcare, Spanish, and computer science, becomes even more diverse with a social entrepreneurship tag. What originally began as a research project through Bass Connections has transformed into something much bigger than any of us had expected. We had grown from researchers into social entrepreneurs.
Although our project technically ends at the end of this year, we will continue to work to improve our health intervention in any way possible. We hope to receive additional funding in order to create the best possible version of Juntos.
“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” – Bill Drayton
Just as well, we will not be terminating our project any time soon, not until we revolutionize healthcare resources for Latino MSM and TW.
