A grant that helped local public health officials build a team of community health advocates has been extended.
The Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Community Health Worker Initiative Grant, which was initially awarded to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department last year, has been extended through next January.
The aim of the Community Health Advocates Program is to assess the health needs of the community.
The health department said in a news release, the grant extension will allow the CHWi team “to continue to address the many health disparities that were highlighted by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic for another year.”
The team of 11 community health advocates has worked to provide information about COVID-19 and has administered more than 8200 COVID-19 vaccines. It’s also distributed more than 9,000 at-home COVID-19 tests working with community partners such as the Springfield-Greene County Library. Three of the CHAs are dedicated to the health department's COVID-19 call center, three are dedicated to our CHWi program and five are dedicated to the department's chronic disease prevention program, health department officials said.
The health department said, since October, community health workers also assessed 27 people for underlying health conditions and made 80 referrals to food, transportation, housing and mental health services.
If you or someone you know would like to receive help from a community health advocate, email healthoutreach@springfieldmo.gov.
Health department officials said they've worked to create sustainability for the program so it can continue beyond the duration of the grant. And they said there will be more opportunities for training for those interested in becoming a community health advocate.
