ABSTRACT:
Favelas determine living and health conditions while amplifying the risks to which their populations are exposed. Within a context of polycrises (Dan-Cohen, 2019), recognizing how these risks manifest, overlap, and affect these communities and how they perceive and develop response capacities are priority challenges for health promotion. This study sought to evaluate a Systemic Risk Assessment (SRA) model (Gambhir et al., 2025) based on the Heliópolis favela in São Paulo, Brazil, focusing on the climate change, COVID-19, and food insecurity crises. It aimed to construct new meanings through the hybridization of technical-scientific and popular knowledge in identifying local risks and responses. Eleven workshops were conducted with nine young researchers from the community-based observatory "De Olho na Quebrada" using participatory methods (Wallerstein et al., 2017): culture circles, photovoice, world café, and talking maps, alongside WhatsApp questionnaires regarding justice and equity, individual and collective agency, and impacts and responses across multiple scales. The assessment identified intersected risks related to: conducting research within the community while dealing with power dynamics and territorial interests; fires associated with high housing density and precarious systems; environmental racism regarding urban flooding and chemical contamination in a housing complex; and inequalities that aggravate crises. It also noted threats to the sense of community and local social capital due to changing habitation patterns. The study concluded that risk assessment expands when applied an “insider and a close-up view” (Magnani, 2002), revealing factors often missed by institutional data. Responses associated with local social capital demonstrate creative solutions for the future, highlighting the necessity of intercultural translations to bridge technical knowledge and local realities.