Seattle Community Health Project

Grantee: Neighborcare Health
Timeframe: July 2014 – June 2017 | Total Amount: $416,048

Year 1: July 2014 – June 2015. Amount: $136,048
Year 2: July 2015 – June 2016. Amount: $150,000
Year 3: July 2016 – June 2017. Amount: $130,000

Neighborcare Health is the health care partner in the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) Choice Neighborhoods Grant to serve the Yesler Terrace neighborhood. Yesler Terrace is home to 2,525 residents, who are culturally diverse (primarily Asian or African American, frequently foreign born) and more impoverished than Seattle as a whole, with 35% under the poverty level.
As a result they are more isolated and medically underserved: Of 353 residents surveyed by SHA, 54% report their health as being only fair, or poor; 27% reported feeling down, depressed or hopeless nearly every day; 80% report they do not have health coverage; and 49% cite the emergency room as their usual source of care.

As the healthcare partner for the Choice Neighborhoods grant, Neighborcare will provide 2 Community Health Workers (CHW) at .50FTE each, representing the two largest Yesler cultural groups, Somali and Vietnamese, and a .20FTE Community Health Manager. The CHWs will provide outreach to vulnerable area residents, linkage to a health care home, support in navigating the heath care system, culturally competent wellness classes, walking groups and more and will work in coordination with housing and other service providers. This funding has provided the opportunity to launch this project at Yesler Terrace, but it does not adequately address the need for services within this diverse community or within other communities served by our clinics. At present, Neighborcare has a patchwork of Americorps volunteers/health educators across its clinic system that are providing some community health education at our clinic sites, but we lack a comprehensive approach to meeting this need among our patients.

Neighborcare requests funding in the amount of $185,000 to fund an additional 2.0FTE Community Health Workers and a .50FTE Eligibility Specialist for insurance enrollment to better serve the highly diverse Yesler Terrace Neighborhood. Funding is also requested to for the .80FTE Community Health Manager role to both manage the Yesler Terrace project and study other communities to identify needs/opportunities to expand services with the intent of creating a replicable model to expand to additional Seattle communities after this first year. Additionally, Neighborcare Health will partner with Seattle Central Community College (SCCC) to develop a CHW program resulting in a career ladder for CHWs to take basic skills developed as entry level CHWs to grow into community health educators and associate degree level health care roles. Neighborcare’s role in this partnership is not funded through this request, though the work in the field developed through this project will inform the curriculum, if funded.