Action for a Better Community, Inc.

Poor rural areas surrounding Monroe, Ontario, and Wayne counties struggle with unmet health care needs such as low rates of child immunizations, high rates of breast cancer, alcoholism, and inadequate medical services.

The MOW Health Project was intended to build on the area’s existing human service outreach network to provide health service outreach and education and to facilitate insurance enrollment in public programs.

This grant to Action for a Better Community, a federally and state-designated community action agency in upstate New York, aimed to increase health insurance coverage, improve access to primary care, and coordinate health services and outreach to residents of the tri-county area of Monroe, Ontario, and Wayne (MOW) Counties.

By centralizing outreach and developing a referral network process, the Monroe, Ontario, Wayne (MOW) Health Project helps increase residents’ awareness of community resources. This project built on existing community assets and seeks to improve the connection between services and the people who need them.

Project activities included: (1) a meeting between the Action for a Better Community project coordinator with outreach provider agencies to identify the capacity of the existing health provider network and develop a plan for collaborating on shared health outreach goals; (2) recruitment and training of local outreach workers and volunteers to provide targeted health education and facilitated enrollment assistance; (3) data collection and referral by all outreach workers that will be used to advise partner organizations about follow-up on the health needs of community residents; and (4) one-on-one health education or literature provided by outreach workers to consumers.