By Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, MPH, CHWI, co-director of Health Confianza, director of Global Health, The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Hi everyone and welcome to the third installment of our Health Confianza newsletter. As I was reflecting on what I wanted to say this quarter, I came to the realization that our country is embarking on sweeping changes to public health policy, research funding, and the social safety net, bringing our city, county and collective work to a critical moment. The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to reshape healthcare access and public health services nationwide, including changes to Medicaid and food assistance programs. In Bexar County, where many residents rely on these programs, these developments will bring both uncertainty and fear—and they call on us, as community leaders, to respond with clarity and compassion.
At Health Confianza, we believe that trusted relationships and informed action are the foundation of building and sustaining community resilience. To best prepare our diverse San Antonio community for these changes, we feel it is time to reaffirm our shared responsibility and collective efforts to ensure people have access to the most accurate, timely, and trustworthy health information. By applying principles of health literacy—such as plain language, cultural relevance, and active listening, we can help reduce fear, build confidence, and empower our neighbors to make informed decisions about their health and well-being.
To this end, this issue of our newsletter is full of information and resources to help us navigate this changing landscape. This includes up to date vaccine guidance and recommendations from Dr. Junda Woo, a primer on how to integrate plain language into health communications, an introduction to our new cohort of trusted community collaborators and messengers known as Confianza Ambassadors, a profile on a Confianza Community Changer from the Southside, and an overview of our upcoming Communicating with Confianza ECHO series.
Together, we can be a steady source of clarity and support in uncertain times. Let’s continue to lead and communicate with confianza—confidence rooted in trust, knowledge, and unity. Thank you for being part of our Confianza Collective where we work towards helping people make the best decisions for themselves and their families.
Sign up for the Health Confianza Quarterly newsletter: https://forms.office.com/r/jMN7m52Wit