Community Health Workers in New York

With my current work in community outreach and health education here in the states, I was really grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the mission of international HELP for one of their domestic projects. Thanks to a new partnership with AME Assembly of God, International HELP will be able to extend a community health worker program to Long Island, New York, specifically for the Hispanic community of Patchogue. From the initial research and needs assessment work we were able to discover the top health needs of the community. After that, we determined that the community health worker education would include respiratory health, maternal and reproductive health, nutrition and weight management and emotional health. In developing certain material it was really exciting to take some of my knowledge and experience with maternal health programs and tailor some of the curriculum for this project.

Hopefully, in the next few weeks, Monterey and I can finalize dates with the leadership and community members of AME to start community health worker training. For the future, we hope that this project may extend to other partnering churches in the area and into the Suffolk and Nassau counties of Long Island, New York. It is amazing to work alongside so many different people (within and outside the health field and with various skills and perspectives) through International HELP and to know that we are all working towards empowering the communities around us.

Suffolk County, New York shown in red  (via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_County,_New_York)