Wednesday, May 29
Today we focused on preparing for the incoming weeks of interviews and at the WeWork Offices. We were able to delegate tasks, make significant progress on our website, continue facilitating contacts with interviewees / potential points of contact, and overall become acclimated to the city. Specifically speaking, we locked in a 45 minute zoom call with a contact who can provide us with general background on municipal health care programs for undocumented populations. Additionally, we made specific plans to visit the Healthy San Francisco offices that are local to us, as well as expand our key informants to religious affiliations as well.
Throughout this trip our team has also prioritized understanding other (non insurance based) elements of access for undocumented immigrants, as well as other minority individuals, and that begins with our own understanding. After getting our clipper cards activated, we made use of them on the BART transportation system, paying specific attention to accessibility. This information is equally as important as we consider the content that ultimately will get published.
Thursday, May 30
Today was a more action-based day. After figuring out logistics in the morning, we split up and went to different parts of the city to walk into offices of politicians and local healthcare/community programs. Ashley and Kasey spoke to many San Francisco City Supervisors and their aides in City Hall and they visited the SF Department of Public Health. They were able to email a scheduler who will contact a representative of the Department of Public Health for us. They also visited the Mission District, where they stopped by a community organization. They spoke with a representative who said she would email an individual, which we had established contact with previously, as well as emailing the Family Wellness Program, and the Health Promotions Program on our behalf. They visited the SF Human Services Agency and were given contact to someone who works directly with Medi-Cal at another one of their offices. Alongside both of these visits, they stopped by the another community center and followed up with someone who we had emailed a few weeks ago, and left our contact information again.
The rest of the group (Megan, Niki, and Aasser) visited the San Francisco Public Health Network office and were able to get a direct email for a manager at the office. Megan sent an email to this contact, as well as keeping in contact with previously established contacts and booked more interviews for next week. We went to WeWork to complete other fieldwork tasks, including work on the website, our presentation for our admissions event on June 9, and contacting Wendy Fong to follow up with the networking events that she had mentioned on the 29th.
Friday, May 31
Today we attended the Spark Social networking event as a team. We were able to connect with some of the Spark startup students as well as San Francisco residents who are able to provide us information on the city dynamic. Following this event we finalized initial communications out to the contacts we gained since being in California, and Ashley sent a voicemail to a representative from the San Francisco Human Service Industry.
In preparation for tomorrow we began connecting with Kendall Prime, a Lehigh alum of whom was an impact fellow herself, who we anticipate will have expertise regarding the dynamic of the city. Per usual, our team also continued to facilitate connections with our other established interviewees.
Saturday, June 1
Our team started this morning by joining a zoom meeting with faculty advisor Prof. Michael Gusmano. As he prepared to fly out to meet us in the city, we aimed to catch him up on the past days events, discuss the new individuals we were hoping to get in contact with, and seek his expertise on other avenues we could explore.
Following this conversation we took a group trip to the Mission district, where some of our members had traveled previously, in order to better understand different areas of the city beyond those directly surrounding the Bowes Center. Additionally, this outing allowed us to utilize the MUNI transportation system for the first time which, as previously mentioned, is crucial in our comprehensive understanding of what access looks like for San Francisco, which can be extrapolated into undocumented immigrant specifics.
Finally, we ended our evening with a much anticipated dinner event with Kendall Prime at the Inner Richmond area of San Francisco. In a casual environment, we were able to chat with her regarding the purpose of our project and our intended-timeline goals. While she does not hold specific expertise in healthcare, working as a news journalist for a media company she had a very holistic understanding of the eclectic city, as we had predicted. Our conversation with her was both enlightening and informative, and we came out with not only a better understanding of ever changing San Francisco, but other activities we could participate in to extend that understanding.
Sunday, June 2
Today’s endeavors were focused on visiting some of the historically significant sights of the city to further our understanding.
We began at Haight-Ashbury which is best known for its role in the 1960s counterculture movement. We also took time to explore Golden Gate Park as well as the Golden Gate Bridge itself, all of which represented crucial elements of this city’s history. Given that our work is qualitative and surrounding issues of accessibility, our team has recognized that the more we understand about historical values, movements, and landmarks, the better we can understand the dynamic of today which makes our mission to move in the direction of healthcare accessibility that much more attainable.
Monday, June 3
We had our first meeting with the director of an organization that refers uninsured patients for free specialty care. He works very closely with undocumented immigrants and gave us a thorough insight on the services the organization provides and how that benefits undocumented patients’ access to care in San Francisco. We had an amazing time learning about all that Operation Access does and gained valuable insight on where to further our research.
Then we toured around Chinatown and enjoyed chow mein and fried rice at Far East Cafe. Afterwards we headed back to the Mission District to meet with some local organizations and nonprofits that provide healthcare for undocumented immigrants that we emailed in the past. With help from a previous interviewee, we reconnected with a community resource center and secured another interview with a health clinic in the Mission District. We will meet with the community resource center representatives on Tuesday, June 11th from 1-2pm in person. We will meet with the health clinic on Friday, June 7th from 1:30pm to 2:30pm.
Tuesday, June 4
Today our team split into the same small groups of three (Ashley, Nathan, Kasey and Niki, Megan, and Aasser) to focus on various tasks efficiently.
We began the day by visiting One Medical, where we had the opportunity to talk to the individual at the front desk and provided our contact information and consent document, which he said he would relay to his manager. Next, we went to the Healthy San Francisco office once again to ensure that the establishment still knew we were in the area and eager to schedule an interview. Instead of simply getting the contact information of the manager again, this time we left Megan’s email and received a follow-up email almost immediately to schedule a Zoom meeting we will conduct this summer after in-person fieldwork. We then decided to visit Equity Health, a health clinic with a couple of satellite clinics (Press and Senior) that we were interested in providing our information and scheduling an interview with as well. Upon arrival at the Senior Clinic of Equity Health, we were quickly re-directed and encouraged to visit the Main Clinic and were told that both satellite clinics run under the Main Clinic, which would be in the best of our interest to provide our information. During our visit to the Main Clinic of Equity Health, we provided the consent form and information to the manager, and she expressed that she would need some time to get back to us but was interested in the work we are doing.
Ashley, Kasey, and Nathan began the day by visiting the City Hall to reconnect with some of the legislative aides. We met some really interesting people and had a blast being able to interact with the staff of Supervisors as many took an interest in our study. We also had the opportunity to reconnect with the staff at the other health policy oriented department to ask for any updates they may have about scheduling an interview with us. They remembered us from last time and were excited about our work.
We headed south to the local clinic where we met with a supervisor who was very interested in the work. She said that she would love to help out with our project. We left our information with her and she said that she would try and schedule a meeting with us in person next week before we left. If that proved unattainable, she would try and schedule a meeting with us over the summer.
Finally we headed to a mental health resource center in a beautiful neighborhood. Unfortunately they were not available that day so we left our information and obtained a phone number to leave a voicemail for them to check on.
Wednesday, June 5
We started off our morning at the Mercury Cafe. A representative from public health reached out to us letting us know how she was very interested in our project and wanted to help out in any way she could. Though she would be out of town for the duration of our time in San Francisco, a summer is being planned over zoom or over the phone. Then we went to our third interview with contacts at an organization that helps connect undocumented immigrants to the health resources that they need and provide information about the resources they have available. They provided really insightful information about the work they do and how that interacts with city resources. At the end they provided us with more contacts we could reach out to.
Next we took the bus to a new part of town to connect with a religious based health community. Because we didn’t have an appointment we were unable to meet with anyone in person. However we hope to leave them an email or voicemail to hopefully get in contact with them sooner or later. Because another hospital was nearby, we asked if anyone knew how we could meet with a representative from their research team. They were very kind but unfortunately did not know much about the research team.
Meanwhile our other members [Megan, Aasser, and Niki] bussed to UCSF Mission Bay campus for our interview with a news journalist. Despite the fact that our interviewee was outside the medical realm, their input was invaluable as they had immense experience in the city of SF as well as covered numerous stories regarding the pivots of California’s healthcare coverage policies. Our team gathered a much better understanding of how healthcare policies are viewed by civilians as well as how issues including homelessness, drug abuse, and increased criminal activity are likely intertwined with our pertinent research questions.
Thursday, June 6
Today our teams split into the same two groups focusing on working on updating the blog and following up with interviewees and exploring San Francisco more. Ashley, Kasey, and Nathan had an informative academic experience in San Francisco. We got to explore a new part of San Francisco and get a better understanding of the layout of the city. We also followed up with more emails and messages in our attempts to try and schedule more meetings and interviews for the summer. For us, following up on emails and phone calls has been incredibly successful so we decided to message more organizations in the area. We finished out the evening with more team bonding and exploring a new area of San Francisco. This allowed for us to take the Streetcar with our clipper cards which introduced us to a new mode of public transportation in San Francisco that connected downtown with the piers.
Niki, Megan, and Aasser started their day with a trip to WeWork where they initially had a Zoom meeting scheduled, but it got canceled and rescheduled for later this summer. Instead, they used the time to work on updating blog posts, making significant progress within the administrative materials of the project. In the afternoon, they decided to explore Franklin Street near the Bowes Center, where they were able to wind down and eat delicious Italian food after a productive morning.
Friday, June 7
Ashley, Kasey, and Nathan started off the day bright and early by exploring an area that is crucial to our understanding of San Francisco as many of the clinics we interviewed were situated in that area. We became a lot more acquainted with the variety of resources available for undocumented immigrants in that area. Additionally, walking around in the district allowed for us to understand how the public transportation was connected between different parts of San Francisco as well as in the district as well. We were able to observe other modes of transportation in the area as well such as bikes and scooters. While passing through the streets, we observed many flyers, posters, and information about other local health-related organizations that we were unable to find previously on the internet. This helped expand our list to include other people to contact over the summer and hopefully gain an even deeper understanding of resources in the area.
Afterwards we went to our interview with a local health clinic. The Director there was very informative and provided us with a new and unique perspective of the resources available. She shared not only concrete facts and figures regarding medical resources, but was able to intertwine her experiences and impressions from the city and beyond. Additionally, she was able to speak about the services provided at her center and how they are different from others around the area. She discussed the changes she made within the clinic in order to further reduce the barriers that undocumented immigrants may face while trying to acquire healthcare. Her insight on the stigmatization and cultural barriers was deeply insightful and fundamental to our study. Though we were unable to continue the interview, we are hoping to reach out and reconnect with her over the summer to finish out this interview. This day was an absolute success and we are incredibly grateful and excited to continue our discussion into the summer.
Niki, Megan, and Aasser began their day with a trip to Pier 39, a significant experience for our research project. Exploring this vibrant and popular area of San Francisco allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the city’s bustling tourist spots, which is crucial for our research. Pier 39 is known for its lively atmosphere, diverse attractions, and the iconic sea leons that bask on the docks, all of which draw large crowds of visitors. Observing these elements provided us with valuable content and insights into the patterns and behaviors of both tourists and locals. The other half of the group joined in our exploration after their interview-heavy day, adding further depth to Niki, Megan, and Aasser’s observations.
To end our day, all Silicon Valley Impact groups were invited to a group diner with our faculty advisor, Michael Gusmano. This dinner was not only enjoyable, but also a productive session where our group discussed our findings and had the opportunity to interact in an informal setting. Our team was incredibly grateful to learn more about Dr. Gusmano’s personal research and his specific ambitions within this project. We were particularly inspired to hear Dr. Gusmano’s reasons for creating this project and his story behind wanting to learn more about undocumented immigrants and their access to healthcare. His passions and dedication to understanding the unique challenges faced by this group truly inspired the entire team.
Saturday, June 8
Today a majority of our team (Ashley, Kasey, Nathan, and Niki) spent the morning exploring the cross-city transportation available from San Francisco to Oakland. We spent some time exploring the University of California, Berkeley. The relative accessibility of cross-city travel gave us additional context when discussing transportation as a barrier to healthcare access. Although travel seems possible and somewhat affordable, the opportunity cost presented by the time commitment is a large factor to transportation being a factor.
Afterwards, the entire group spent the day conducting some preliminary decoding of our interview transcripts and trying to find common themes with our academic advisor. We also explored what a more formal process would look like once we returned in the Fall. Additionally, we discussed our summer responsibilities for the project and how we would go about conducting summer Zoom interviews. Ashley, Kasey, and Nathan also decided on a time for an upcoming Friday Zoom interview. Ultimately, we ended the conversation with a clear idea of what the rest of the summer and upcoming semester would look like and the responsibilities each person had.
Sunday, June 9
The group participated in an admissions event at the Nasdaq Center for prospective and committed students. We spent this morning polishing our google slides presentation and going through the major talking points for our project. The group introduced themselves and Megan gave a presentation on our project and its goals. We then took part in a Q&A panel-style session afterwards, where the students and their families asked questions about Creative Inquiry and Lehigh in general. The questions served as a great way to verbalize some reflections about our project and our time in San Francisco.
After the admissions event all the Silicon Valley Social Impact teams went to lunch with Bill. We sat with other teams and were able to discuss their successes and learn more about what they’ve been working on in San Francisco. Additionally, the time spent served as a great opportunity to connect with the other teams on a more personal level.
Monday, June 10
Today was the final in-person interview for half of our team (Megan, Aasser, and Niki) with a researcher and professor from a local California university. Unlike some of our other informants, this particular interviewee has had specific contact with undocumented immigrants in their time researching healthcare access, so they were better able to provide information on specific programs (such as Healthy San Francisco), their use in the dynamic of California, and how specific continuity of care/specialty care looks like for uninsured populations. Additionally, this participant has dabbled in the realm of policy and governmental research, so they were able to provide some information on how the upcoming elections may impact the current policies and climate in California, and specifically the Bay Area.
Today, Ashley, Kasey, and Nathan were able to navigate our way through accessing the CalTrain which was another form of transportation in San Francisco to go visit Stanford University. The Cal Train was fairly easy to navigate and access which is able to pose as another excellent form of transportation to get in and out of San Francisco. Later this afternoon we prepared as a group for our upcoming interview the next day with the a community resource center.
Tuesday, June 11
Ashley, Kasey, and Nathan in the afternoon were able to have their last in person interview with the a community resource center located in the Mission District. We were able to interview two important directors in this organization where they were able to provide us with valuable insight such as the barriers that many undocumented residents of San Francisco face when accessing healthcare in the Mission district. After this interview we grabbed lunch at the Panchitas Restaurant where we had a very insightful discussion and debrief on how the organization plays a vital role within their community by being able to provide a variety of resources for the undocumented residents of San Francisco.
