By Leanne Berge / For The Herald
As a safety-net health care organization founded by Washington’s Community Health Centers to serve historically marginalized, low-income communities, Community Health Plan of Washington understands what is at stake as a result of the 2024 national elections.
If campaign rhetoric is to be believed, the state’s most vulnerable populations will require more support from local Community Health Centers, and frontline community-based organizations who provide a broad range of health and social services to these communities.
In health care, we see daily how social factors like housing insecurity, poverty, food scarcity, language barriers, race, ethnicity and immigration status, and sexual orientation and gender identity affect people’s health. Five years ago, Community Health Plan of Washington established our Advancing Equity grant program, which provides $250,000 in grants annually to support 25 community organizations who provide critical supports for communities experiencing these barriers and more in Washington state.
Several community-based organizations who are recipients of this year’s grants are trusted and safe harbors for those who may be most at risk in this uncertain time ahead. The International Rescue Committee and Thrive International are two of those, offering immigrants and refugees who are seeking asylum with culturally appropriate support as they recover and rebuild their lives in Washington. Some organizations reach across Washington providing needed support to both urban and rural communities, such as Entre Hermanos, which has served the Latino LGBTQ+ community in Washington for 35 years with critical health programs around HIV/AIDS, housing, and immigration services. Washington’s Lavender Rights Project provides direct legal services to Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ individuals, as well as supports advocacy and policy initiatives.
Community-based organizations provide critical support not only for individuals, but also for healthier families across Washington state. Global Perinatal Services addresses that head-on, creating culturally responsive pregnancy and parenting experiences for Black, immigrant and refugee families. We work closely with them and similar organizations through our Healthy Baby, Healthy You case management program as we strive to improve pregnancy care and maternal survival rates. Other organizations such as The Next Door provide a safety net for children at risk of abuse and neglect and for victims of crime, while The Mockingbird Society works to transform the foster care system and end youth homelessness. Building healthier communities takes all of us working together, aligning our efforts to address the full spectrum of social, medical and behavioral drivers of health.
We are grateful for the strong and diverse coalition of organizations represented in the list of Advancing Equity grant recipients and for the hundreds of other community-based partners that we and our Community Health Centers work with toward the common goal of health equity for all. Providing equitable access to health services — in the broadest sense — can only be achieved through our collective and collaborative efforts. Community based organizations are critical partners in delivering so many of these frontline, safety net services.
Martin Luther King Jr. often referred to his work as building the “Beloved Community,” a society driven by caring and compassion in which all people come together through peaceful means to live in a just and equitable world. As we strengthen our bonds in our work together, the Community Health Ceters and Community Health Plan of Washington is unwavering in the pursuit of Dr. King’s dream. This for us, is the “power of community.”
Leanne Berge is the CEO of Community Health Plan of Washington and Community Health Network of Washington.
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