CHWAR works to partner with organizations striving for change in health, equity, and social justice in Rochester.
Collabs and events
Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services, City Rise
RRRS has been fortunate to work with the City of Rochester to help City staff, especially those handling property conversion, connect with City residents, primarily tenants. We had the role of bringing together focus groups of different cultures of refugees and immigrants to meet with City staff to understand the needs of New Americans as they relate to housing, and to familiarize New Americans with the City of Rochester as a resource. RRRS will continue to collaborate with the City to develop instructional useful tools to communicate with peoples of different cultures on how to live safely in a healthy home in Rochester. While we use “refugees” and “New Americans” as generic terms, this group actually constitutes several different cultures, each unique unto itself and different from each other. RRRS is well equipped to help put this program together because of our ability to bring people from these various cultures to the table, people qualified to help design useful information that is culturally sensitive.
Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services hired CHW’s who graduated from our 2019 CHW Training to provide in-home education to families on how to properly clean home and maintain cleaning chemicals safely.
For more information, click below.
Navigation for Health Care Equity
A Community Collaboration
Finding the right care can be hard and barriers to access and use of digital tools can make it even harder.
To make it easier for patients to find the care they need when they need it, UR Medicine is collaborating with the Community Health Workers Association of Rochester and other community partners to launch the Digital Health Equity Navigation Training (DHENT).
Through DHENT, interested community navigators, including community health workers, care managers, librarians, etc., will learn how to best help you get the most out of online patient portals, including MyChart.
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Interested in learning more? Call (585) 278-6112, (585) 957-0032 or email us at chwarochester@gmail.com.
Senator Brouk Community Baby Shower
Last year State Sen. Samra Brouk was joined by more than 30 organizations across the Rochester area to host a Community Baby Shower at the Ryan R-Center. The event was designed to provide information, resources and supplies to new and growing families in the Rochester area.
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This year we're back! Come Join us at the third annual Senator Samra Brouk Community Baby Shower
Finger Lakes COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force
Lucia Colindres CHW Leader joined the Finger Lakes COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force. They will play an important role in helping to answer questions and serve as a point of contact for residents across our region. The group will oversee strategies and tactics for guaranteeing that every adult in our region has the information and access they need to make an informed choice about vaccination.
Sharing Resources and Unifying Voices for Health, Equity, and Social Justice
Lucia Colindres CHW Leader and NACHW Ambassador joined NACHW ED Denise Smith for an international panel discussion with Last Mile Health on Community Health and Social Equity during COVID-19. Also attended by Moderator Gaurab Basu Co-Director of the Center for Health Equity Education & Advocacy (CHEEA) at the Cambridge Health Alliance; NACHW Ally Alexandra Quinn, Chief Executive Officer of Health Leads and Katie Bollbach, Director, US Public Health Accompaniment Unit at Partners In Health.
Lucia brought the awareness of a CHW role in Rochester in response to the pandemic, historic inequity and protests concerning the death of Daniel Prude. In response, Lucia is creating authentic partnerships with local organizations across ethnicity and sector to share resources and unify their voices. CHWs in her community are deeply connected to local issues of health, equity and social justice.
NACHW will continue to amplify the perspectives, roles and impact of CHWs. In the last three months, we have hosted four national webinars on CHW self-care, how CHW Networks are responding to COVID-19, community mental health needs and CHWs’ roles in addressing racism. Hundreds of participants from across the country are learning about these local initiatives. When we come together, we can share our stories, our struggles and strategies to support our communities! To support your work with individuals, families, and communities, NACHW has developed a series of COVID-19 resources highlighting national perspectives from CHWs on their information, resource, and self-care needs. See also below an article with CHW insights on the impact of COVID-19 to their personal and professional lives.