Community demand at neighborhood resource hubs<\/p>\n
The resource hubs first started providing in-person COVID-19 testing in underserved communities in November 2021. By January 2022, they began distributing at-home test kits and other supplies. The hubs were designed to bring free services closer to residents and address cost, transportation and other barriers to accessing preventative tools.\n<\/p>\n
In addition to offering free COVID-19 resources, many of the hubs grew their services to include free testing for sexually transmitted infections, fentanyl testing strips and overdose reversal medication, diabetes screenings, pregnancy tests, nicotine replacement therapies like patches and gum, infant cribs, children\u2019s books and more.\n<\/p>\n
They are staffed by the health department and currently located within Bethany Baptist Church in Southwest Philly, Mi Salud Wellness Center in North Philly, Puentes de Salud in Center City and St. Barnabas Community Resource Center in West Philly.\n<\/p>\n
Community members said they worry that people who consistently visit these sites will struggle to access services at new locations.\n <\/p>\n
They\u2019re also concerned the move will bring services out of trusted community organizations like Puentes de Salud, which serves a large population of Spanish-speaking residents.\n<\/p>\n
The city can use its real-time language interpretation program to help non-English visitors, said James Garrow, spokesperson for the city health department. There are also Spanish-speaking staff who can assist in person at certain community action centers.\n<\/p>\n
Health Commissioner Palak Raval-Nelson said she is personally working with Puentes to reassure residents that they will have access to services in one form or another.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a non-English speaker, English being my second language, I\u2019m very mindful of those issues,\u201d said Raval-Nelson during a May 4 city budget hearing. \u201cSo, I want to make sure that at the end of the day, we have the best solution for the community that needs the Department of Public Health to be there for them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Transitioning and growing services at new action centers<\/p>\n
The specific types of hub services and resources that will be offered at community action centers will depend on each site\u2019s capacity, as some locations are smaller in scope and size than others, Garrow told WHYY.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re working to right-size the operations at each of the [action centers] to make sure we can offer the appropriate resources and support based on community needs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe acknowledge that not all 10 sites will have as many resources as the current four resource hubs do, but now we\u2019ll be offering resources in neighborhoods throughout the city, as opposed to the current handful.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The hope is that the action centers will grow and eventually offer a range of public health programs and assistance, starting with resource hub services, Garrow said.\n<\/p>\n
Some health department staff members who\u2019ve been working at the current resource hubs are being moved to other city programs, he said. The department is working to place other hub workers in new roles through internal job fairs and city human resources.\n<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, Campbell said it\u2019s important that people have places they can depend on for free COVID-19 supplies and other public health services to the same or even greater degree they\u2019ve had in the past.\n<\/p>\n
Supporters and visitors of these resource hubs want to be part of the solution, they said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe want is there. The organizational drive is there. Just be clear with us about what the options are,\u201d Campbell said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community demand at neighborhood resource hubs The resource hubs first started providing in-person COVID-19 testing in underserved communities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7619,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-213524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-covid-19","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}