SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas has selected eight Rio Grande Valley community coalitions for the fifth cohort of its Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together (PJTT) Learning Collaborative.
PJTT supports communities in shifting and sharing power to accelerate their journey toward health equity, MHM states. It will be the first time the learning collaborative has been implemented in the Valley. It was previously implemented in Bexar County and other parts of the South Texas border region.
“Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together is a power-shifting, collaborative opportunity for communities in south and central Texas to substantially accelerate their equity journey. We believe communities hold the solutions to improve their health and well-being,” the group states. “The goal of the Learning Collaborative is to equip coalitions with skills and resources to strategically advance health equity, using the Pathways to Population Health Equity framework as a guide.”
Representing Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy, and Cameron counties, the coalitions will begin a six‑month learning collaborative in March 2026 to explore frameworks that will help them develop and implement a health equity strategy tailored to their communities.
The eight coalitions selected for the cohort are:
Jaime Wesolowski, president and CEO of Methodist Healthcare Ministries, said his group strongly believes that communities are best equipped to improve their health and well-being. The ultimate goal of this collaborative, he said, is to provide coalitions with the knowledge and resources to strategically advance health equity, utilizing the Pathways to Population Health framework as a guide.
“The Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together program is one of the ways that we advance our strategic focus of strengthening communities,” Wesolowski said. “It has been an invigorating experience for our team as it allows us to have a stronger and deeper level of engagement where we learn and co-create the solutions with people who live, work, pray, and play in the communities we serve.”
According to a MHM press release, the group’s PJTT team will “support the coalitions in developing a multi-sector collaboration that incorporates persons with recent lived experience of the challenges that the coalition is tackling into the coalition’s leadership team.” It says the goals is “for community coalitions to identify and focus on one or more vital community condition (such as humane housing or reliable transportation) that contributes to the well-being of the entire community.”
Each coalition will create a strategic framework or plan of action for advancing health equity, MHM says, with the PJTT team meeting regularly with the coalitions, scheduling monthly check-ins to build rapport and trust and offer support as the coalitions learn and grow.
Coalitions that successfully complete the Learning Collaborative will be invited to apply to the Implementation Phase, MHM says. “The Implementation Phase lasts 3 years and includes funding as well as capacity-building resources. Although coalitions will focus their time working in community, they will still be invited to collaborate with each other through convenings and peer coaching & learning.”
The program will be implemented in these two phases:
Phase I
Phase I, the Learning Collaborative, lasts six months (from March – August). During this phase, Prosperemos Juntos | Thriving Together team shares various frameworks and tools with coalitions to support them in developing and implementing a health equity strategy.
Phase II
Phase II, after completing the Learning Collaborative, coalitions are invited to apply to Phase II, the Implementation Phase. The Implementation Phase lasts 3 years and includes funding as well as capacity-building resources. While coalitions focus their time working in community, they will also have opportunities to learn from and collaborate with other coalitions through convenings and other events. During this phase, coalitions are encouraged to continually recruit diverse members — particularly those with lived experience — and to adopt intentional strategies that shift power and decision-making to community members most impacted by inequities.
In selecting the eight community coalitions, MHM had identified these key criteria:
During the first phase, MHM said the PJTT team will help the eight coalitions build their team, partnerships, and strategy.
“We are not looking for ‘perfect coalitions.’ This Learning Collaborative is designed to help supplement your community’s work – not replace it nor ‘reinvent the wheel.’ We are looking for groups that are hungry to be effective and strategic in giving everyone a fair chance to have good health and a good life,” MHM stated, in its message to the coalitions.
“Creating a culture of health, well-being and equity will be challenging. It will require a new level of commitment from each and all of us. You don’t need to be ‘perfect,’ but you do need to be ready to roll up your sleeves with your peers across this region and get to work. We are eager to support you in this journey, work with you to help create meaningful connections, and help ensure that your community health improvement efforts are successful!
Editor's Note: For more information about Prosperemos Juntos / Thriving Together, contact: thrivingcommunities@mhm.org.
