Bavani Sridhar

The Project

Bavani (she/her/hers) will create an innovative medical-legal partnership addressing the health inequities of Los Angeles’ underserved Asian Pacific Islander (API) population through language access and culturally informed legal services.

In Los Angeles County, approximately 43% of Asian Pacific Islanders are limited in their English proficiency, which can serve as an insurmountable barrier to obtaining basic needs. Language barriers, heightened racism, and generational poverty translate to a high prevalence of negative health outcomes and limited access to justice for the API community. Evidence-based research has proven that such racism and language barriers are fundamental causes of racial health disparities. Although medical-legal partnerships have been successful in addressing the social determinants of health, they often lack a race-conscious lens to account for racial health inequities. This project seeks to improve API health outcomes by improving culturally competent and linguistically accessible practices and reducing institutional barriers to care.

Fellowship Plans

Bavani will create a medical-legal service pathway within the existing healthcare structure of Community Medical Wellness Center and provide holistic legal services to Asian Pacific Islander patients. In addition to direct legal services, she will also conduct legal screening trainings for healthcare staff and host legal clinics. She will employ a race-conscious lens to challenge existing structures of poverty and unequal power within the legal and medical systems.