Roots of Health: A Community Health Worker Collaborative

Southwest Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center

Project Details:

To champion health from within the community by establishing a Community Health Worker training and placement program in Southwest Pennsylvania through partnership and collaboration.

Medical care alone is insufficient for ensuring better health. Up to 90% of health outcomes are determined by social factors, and it is these social factors that often perpetuate health disparities, most disproportionately in vulnerable groups. Often the missing link for people to successfully address their health and social needs is the individualized advocacy, intimate knowledge of the community and community members, and navigating community-specific health and social service needs needs that a Community Health Worker (CHW) can bring to the table.

Our target populations are underserved individuals served by local, trusted healthcare organizations who are Southwest Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center partners such as The Birmingham Free Clinic, Lawrenceville Family Health Center, and Sto-Rox Neighborhood Health Centers. By training and placing CHWs with these existing organizations, we will be able to target communities with significant health needs, disparities and social determinants of health as identified by high SocioNeeds Indices.

Partners:

Are you ready to address public health in Allegheny County?

Join us in improving the health of our community. Submissions have closed.