NACHW JOINS NATIONAL COVID-19 NETWORK TO BUILD RESILIENCE AGAINST PANDEMIC AND PARTNERS WITH KA’U RURAL HEALTH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC.

Posted on March 1, 2021 Updated on March 3, 2021

PRESS RELEASE
  For media inquiries, contact:
  National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW)
  Aurora Grant Wingate
  NACHW NCRN Coordinator
  agrantwingate@hria.org

NACHW JOINS NATIONAL COVID-19 NETWORK TO BUILD RESILIENCE AGAINST PANDEMIC AND PARTNERS WITH KA’U RURAL HEALTH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC.
Nearly 40 national partner organizations band together to bring communities culturally appropriate information and health services.

The National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW) has joined the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM)’s National COVID-19 Resiliency Network (NCRN) of partners to inform community-driven response, recovery, and resiliency strategies for addressing the impact of COVID-19 on communities.

In response to the needs of communities most impacted by COVID-19, NACHW has partnered with Morehouse to integrate the qualities, roles and expertise of Community Health Workers (CHWs, including Promotoras de Salud and Community Health Representatives) to improve the cultural humility and appropriateness of community engagement, education, data collection and information dissemination strategies with communities that experience physical and social vulnerabilities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. NACHW has been awarded a contract from Morehouse to recruit, hire and support eleven CHW Liaisons who share trusting relationships, lived experience, culture, language and geography with specific priority communities in the NCRN initiative. Liaisons will develop and cultivate partnerships with individuals and organizations in these geographic areas, as they support six national goals in the NCRN initiative.

One of the organizations NACHW has partnered is Ka’u Rural Health Community Association, Inc. Jessanie “Auntie Jessie” Marques, a lifelong CHW and Executive Director of Ka’u Rural Health Community Association, has signed on to support NACHW’s partnership with NCRN as a NACHW COVID-19 Community Engagement Liaison.

“Our partnership with Morehouse provides a unique opportunity for NACHW to amplify CHWs as equity leaders, community partners and skilled providers who can increase access to COVID-19 education, testing, contact tracing, health and psychosocial services and vaccines for communities who experience historic and systemic barriers,” says NACHW Executive Director, Denise Octavia Smith, MBA, CHW, PN.

The launch of the NCRN occurs alongside the release of new digital technology accessible through the NCRN website. It provides location-based recommendations on where community members can get a COVID-19 test, fill prescriptions and get a COVID-19 vaccine when distribution increases in the coming months.

“Our national network connects individuals, families, community organizations and clinical providers to timely and relevant COVID-19 information and services in their neighborhood,” says Dominic Mack, MD, MBA, Professor of Family Medicine and Co-Director of the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network in the National Center for Primary Care at MSM.

The NCRN launch follows a $40 million award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health to coordinate a strategic network focused on delivering COVID-19-related information to communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

To access new COVID-19 resources, visit www.msm.edu/ncrn.

About the National Association of Community Health Workers

The National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW) strives to unify the voices of the community health workers and strengthen the profession’s capacity to promote healthy communities through our six key values of self-empowerment, self-determination, social justice and equity, unity, integrity, and dignity and respect. Community Health Workers (CHWs), also known as promotoras de salud, Community Health Representatives, Outreach Specialist, Peers, etc, are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of and/or have an unusually close understanding of the community served. This trusting relationship enables CHWs to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. CHWs also build individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy. Visit our website to learn more and to join our membership.

About Morehouse School of Medicine

Morehouse School of Medicine, located in Atlanta, GA, exists to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities; increase the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce; and address primary health care through programs in education, research, and service, with emphasis on people of color and the underserved urban and rural populations in Georgia, the nation, and the world. MSM is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians and has twice been recognized as the top institution among U.S. medical schools for its dedication to the social mission of education. The faculty and alumni are noted in their fields for excellence in teaching, research, and public policy, and are known in the community for exceptional, culturally appropriate patient care. Morehouse School of Medicine is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctorate and master’s degrees.