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.
Congratulations to all our winners. We are so proud to share your work and stories.
National Network of Libraries of Medicine Course for CHW
National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (Univ of Texas) Middle Atlantic Region (MAR) is developing a course specifically for Community Health Workers that will focus on finding and using trustworthy health information.
Both Jaque Sweeney and Amy Mincer will participate as consultants for the training development program. As part of the course development process, we are assembling two short-term advisory groups (CHWs and CHW trainers / program managers). The groups will meet virtually this fall to provide general feedback about the course. Then, following the completion of a course draft, we will ask each group member to review a 1-hour section of a Moodle course and fill out an online form to provide us feedback.
This review portion will likely occur in early 2021. The time commitment would be about 2-3 hours total, and MAR will provide each participant with a $100 honoraria for participating. The ideal timeline for the first meeting will take place in October or November, depending on the participant's availability.
Covid Vaccine Trial Advisory Council
Over the next six months, the University of Rochester Medical Center is undergoing a strategic planning process that we hope will guide the Center for the forseeable future. It is understood that much is in flux right now - locally and nationally - and that health care continues to shift and change. Thus it's imperative to develop an emergent strategic plan that strives to be adaptive, imaginative, and effective in serving the needs of the people of our community who are currently excluded from the existing systems.
As part of Shannon's work in the strategic planning process, she is charged with assembling a team that will help to understand current trends and cutting edge health care approaches as well as to name what's missing and what's needed. The Center seeks to serve the uninsured and underinsured, but also known is that the categories of people who are left out of the health care system continue to change and grow.
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.