Hello friends, partners, and supporters,
Traditionally, Health Outreach Partners ends each year looking back and taking stock of our work. The last three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic the majority of our work was virtual. While we are proud that we were able to pivot and find innovative ways to support our communities, we are thrilled 2023 started off with in-person activities. After well-deserved time off to celebrate the holidays with friends and family, HOP started the year piloting our hybrid work model. As a team, we agreed on the benefits of working together in person and after several iterations started a 2-day in the office work week. I’m so happy, as we end the year, that we are still coming together 2-3 times per week to collaborate, share ideas, problem solve as well as enjoy one another with a few laughs and lots of great food.
After nearly three years, we hit the road traveling in 2023. Our team started January off with a trip to Columbia, South Carolina to facilitate an outreach training for the South Carolina Primary Care Association. This successful event was just the start to a year that welcomed back a full travel schedule. We facilitated trainings for Blue Ridge Medical Center in Arrington, VA, the California Primary Care Association in Santa Rosa, CA, Healthcare for the Homeless/Farmworker Health Program of San Mateo Co, CA and in Boise, ID for the Idaho Community Heath Center Association to name a few. Conference workshop presentations also returned in 2023 and HOP was ready to go! We presented at nine different events across the country. We traveled to Long Beach, CA, Orlando, FL, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Austin, TX and Winston-Salem, NC to facilitate or participate in training workshops. Our most requested topics included Structural Competency, Ag Worker 101, Organizational Self- Care, Leadership and Communication, and Outreach and Enrollment.
I’d like to showcase two conference events from this long list. HOP’s Meghan Erkel joined forces with Ted Henson from the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and Yarin Gomez from the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) to present at the Community Health Institute (CHI) sponsored by NACHC in San Diego, showcasing resources for health center enabling services staff to respond to emerging issues to increase access to
comprehensive primary health care. Meghan also presented to the Commission on Agricultural Worker Health while there as well as partnered with NACHC to launch the first listening wall session, an innovative approach to stakeholder engagement in planning technical assistance for health centers. The second conference program I am thrilled to highlight is close to my heart, a listening session for CHWs and other outreach workers to improve cervical cancer screening rates for migrant and seasonal agricultural worker and their communities. HOP partnered with Farmworker Justice to conduct an engaging and enlightening conversation at the East Coast Migrant Stream Forum in Winston-Salem, NC on cervical cancer. We discussed barriers in the farmworker community that prevent screening and lead to an increase in cancer rates. This year, HOP committed to including outreach workers and CHWs in our program planning and design process and both these events highlighted this. We firmly believe “Nothing for Us, Without Us” and now it is time for us, to walk the walk- not just talk.
While, I could go on and on about our work this year, I just want to highlight a few other projects I feel represent our commitment to health equity and health center communities. We published an eight-episode podcast highlighting resiliency and recovery in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic with a 9th episode about to drop any day now- hosted by Program Manager Aba Anison-Amoo. Our team updated our Outreach and Enrollment (O&E) curriculum to support health center communities assure their patients maintain their health care coverage as the public health emergency ended and Medicaid requires re-enrollment. Led by Meghan Erkel and Nadeen Mekhael, they took our O&E program from 2013 and updated it to support the current needs of health centers. As part of this, they included listening sessions with front line health center workers. Lastly, we launched a new training, Motivational Interviewing: A Trauma Informed Approach and have received excellent evaluations from participants.
To wrap up, we end this year saying good bye to long time team member Liam Spurgeon, after 10 years, and welcome our new deputy director, Smruti Shah. We also hosted 8 interns, who have made significant contributions to our work, supporting our programs. Thank you to Alysa, Sara, Ushuu, Charmaine, Laura, Jacqueline, Nadeen (who works with now!) and Christabel. We hosted our Board in Oakland for a 2-day retreat, to energize and reflect on our mission. We welcomed new Board member Sendy Sanchez. Thank you to Christina Mestas, our Manager of Executive and Board Affairs for assuring every detail was perfect for this event (especially the delicious food). Lastly, we wrapped up our 3-year HRSA funding cycle and our programs reached 5325 participants and our resources were accessed 10,990 times -WOW!
I am so grateful to work with such a brilliant and committed team. As, we wind down and look forward to ending the year with our family and friends, we ask for you to support Health Outreach Partners today so we can continue our impactful work. Let’s build a future together where all people are valued and equitable access to quality health care is available to everyone, thus enriching our collective well-being. HOP wishes you all a very Happy Holiday Season. With Gratitude- Cindy