Success Stories

This experience sticks out for Germaine because it was in the winter during the second surge of the pandemic.  A young lady and her 10-year-old son inherited a home through the death of her son’s father. She reached out and scheduled a healthy home assessment because she was noticing sewage smells in her home and was concerned about possible illness from the exposure. It was much worse than Germaine imagined. As soon as she walked into the home, she could smell the sewage.  She and her son were sleeping in the living room because the smell was less noticeable there at night. The  sewage problem was beyond Women for a Healthy Environment’s (WHE) scope of work. Germaine was able to provide air filters,  dehumidifiers and a filtered water pitcher; however, it did not help to resolve the issue.  She referred them to temporary housing, but they both needed to be tested for COVID before being placed.  WHE got them an UBER to Cornerstone Care so that they could be tested and have their results in order to be placed in temporary housing.  In addition, Germaine referred the woman and her son to the Salvation Army which was able to finance the cost to fix her sewage problem.  A very dangerous situation was resolved. Full story and bio here.

Belinda connected with a parent of a child with a disability, who had recently been discharged from a skilled nursing facility.  The intention of the home visit was to offer case management services by utilizing language line. Upon arrival at the visit, the parent did not want to use the translation line, but was open to case management services.  The parent stated that he was unable to enroll the child into school, even though a month had passed since the child had been discharged from the nursing facility.  Even though it was very difficult to communicate, the CHW was able to use hand-gesturing, Google Translate, and the school directory to connect the father to a local school representative. The CHW informed the representative of the client’s special accommodation needs and  of existing communication barriers. Through involvement of the CHW, this client has now been enrolled in school, utilizes bus services, is enrolled in a special needs program, and now has aide accommodation during school hours. Full story and bio here.

As Brittani was leaving work, the front desk person asked her to help a 22-year-old woman who was not scheduled.  The young woman had with her two crying babies, each under two years, and she appeared to be in a manic state. The CHW calmed the woman down and learned that both her children were scheduled to receive their vaccinations.  Britanni provided her with a mental health hotline number to call and the woman left with her children. The next day, the front desk notified the CHW that the young woman was back, without her children, and asking to see her. The CHW was able to move around some of her patients and spent a great deal of time talking to the woman. She learned that the woman was having domestic violence issues, and that her boyfriend had started abusing her first thing that morning. Working for a greater part of the day, the CHW was able to identify a domestic violence shelter for her out-of-state.  Full story and bio here.

Lisa was called to meet Miss J., an older woman who had been admitted to the hospital for exacerbation of COPD and congestive heart failure. Miss J. had several grown children and had been living unhoused most of her life. She was currently living in a local women’s shelter and felt safe there, but she dreamed of a space of her own. Ms. J. shared that she had once enjoyed writing poetry because it helped her to cope with her turbulent life, and that she had often thought of enrolling in a community college writing course as her goal was to write greeting cards. Once Miss J. was being prepared for discharge from the hospital, Lisa searched and found her a comfortable room to rent on a transportation line in an area of the city, which Ms. J. was able to afford it from money she had saved from disability. Lisa was also able to connect her with a very affordable writing course that Ms. J. was excited about. Once Miss Jay was discharged, she was able to move her belongings from the shelter to her new living space. Lisa also worked to provide transportation support so Ms. J. could get to follow-up appointments and to food banks near her new home. Lisa remembers helping Ms. J. as one of her most favorite opportunities as a CHW. Bio here.

Jamie, a bilingual CHW, assisted a large family from Mexico who sought asylum in the United States because a member of their immediate family had been murdered by a drug cartel. They fled Mexico for their family’s safety but were fearful of working with any governmental agencies in the U.S. The family was referred to Jamie who learned they were sleeping on the floors of a bedbug infested apartment. Jamie was immediately able to get them air mattresses for all the members of the family, and eventually new beds, mattresses and mattress covers, which she delivered to the family on her own time on a Saturday. Jamie contacted the city code enforcement officer to handle the bedbug issue with their landlord. By building a rapport with the family, she was able to learn their additional needs and she worked with the city and local non-profit agencies to get them food, clothing and storage bins to protect their clothing, a microwave and a special tortilla pan for the mother to prepare food. She was also able to assist with referrals for their medical and prescription needs, as the mother was a diabetic and a grandchild was disabled. And, perhaps most importantly, she was able to examine their documents and learned that they were here legally and had gone through the official asylum process, which they had not understood before. The lives of this entire family were positively affected by one caring CHW. Bio here.