Who We Are

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After years as a certified nursing assistant and community organizer I founded MHP in 2016 to provide wraparound health support to my neighbors. I run MHP on a part-time basis with support from a few dedicated volunteers. The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled a growing need to expand MHP’s services, both geographically and strategically. Over the past 14 months I have been providing hands-on supports to residents of Meadowood and beyond like: delivering critical supplies like face masks, diapers and food; educating people on COVID; negotiating with landlords to prevent evictions; and even running a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in the parking lot of a local church where over 70 primarily BIPOC were vaccinated. The demand is huge and the need to focus on helping my community recover from the many damaging effects of the pandemic is critical. I hope to use funding from this grant opportunity to help scale-up MHP’s efforts and provide additional services to support COVID-19 recovery and build resilience for Madison’s BIPOC and low-income community in and beyond the Meadowood Neighborhood by recruiting, training and supporting others to serve as Community Health Workers (CHW).

As the first certified CHWs in our community I have worked hard to raise the profile of the CHW role through public education and my partnerships with local government, health care, schools, and human services. There is interest and certainly the need to expand the role of CHWs throughout our county. Funding from the CDC would help us build an even stronger foundation for this by allowing us grow the CHW workforce so we can further demonstrate our value in meeting community need and promoting health equity. Recognition from a prestigious funder like the CDC will enable us to build the profile of the CHW role and help ensure that CHWs have the training and support needed to be successful.