Remember COVID-19?
It was crazy. It was chaotic. But it forced us to take a step back and rethink how we approached health.
How many of us take a moment to really appreciate all the steps that are involved in attending a health appointment?
For some of us, it might require taking time off of work, finding a daycare or babysitter, figuring out a means of transportation to get to the appointment and back, or it might be figuring out if the insurance will cover the appointment- or if we don’t have insurance, how we’ll pay for the appointment, or whether we’ll be able to refrigerate the medication we need once we get home.
There are multiple sectors, players, and systems involved in a person attending one appointment.
This shows us that we experience systems- not individual sectors.
Every sector touches another. This is how we experience it in real life. Transportation, housing, food, clinics, education, medical care- they all affect each other.
No one experiences healthcare in a silo- everything affects how we experience health and wellness
But when it comes to doing the work and thinking about the partners we rely on to deliver the information and services we need. We tend to think about it in a one-lane mindset.
Because the reality is that everything is interconnected.
The Social Determinants of Health showcase the importance of every sector impacting the health and wellness of an individual and their household. And the truth is there is so much invisible labor behind building these partnerships.
Cross-sector collaboration sounds great on paper- but the real labor behind it looks like: relationship-building, meetings, sharing information with each other, following up after meetings or brainstorming, negotiating the different priorities of different organizations. It requires building trust with each other, negotiating resources, funds, or services, and sometimes even giving up organization credit for a shared outcome. And it all comes down to making the time, effort, and work into this.
But it is a pursuit worth the time and effort required.
And this is why the foundation for the VOCES Health Summit 2026 is cross-sector collaboration.
Health and wellness do not happen in siloes. They happen when all different types of sectors come together for the betterment of the community. Small businesses, community health workers, nonprofits, researchers, housing, transportation, health departments, clinics, hospitals, parks, school districts, universities, researchers, private companies, arts and culture, family systems, churches, and food systems.
This summit is meant to be a platform to allow for different sectors, perspectives, relationships, and approaches to come together to THINK OUT OF THE BOX for improving health outcomes.
We sing the phrase, “WE CANNOT DO THIS ALONE”. But how do we live it out?
The reality is that collective problems require collective work. And this Labor Day we are reminded to celebrate the work that all workers, industries, and sectors do to serve the community. The challenges faced by our community are bigger than any one institution can do to solve them. We are only as strong as our partnerships.
What sectors need to be at the table?
What voices and stories need to be heard?
What innovations and creative solutions need to be given a chance?
We invite you to think out of the box with us.
Continue the conversation
Brownsville is more than the setting for VOCES Health Summit 2026, it’s part of a much larger national conversation.
Be a part of the Summit and the people, ideas, and communities coming together October 2026.