SEAHEC Receives NAO “Excellence for Community Programs” Award

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SEAHEC Healthy Farms CHWs bring asthma, lead education to their community

The National AHEC Organization (NAO) Center of Excellence for Community Programs has awarded the Southeast Arizona Area Health Education Center’s Healthy Farms program for our work with the Winchester Heights community in northern Cochise County. NAO recognized SEAHEC for our unique model of community development that incorporates training for health professions students into a community health worker driven model for improving rural health and safety in marginalized communities. The Healthy Farms program hosts students and helps them conduct health related community service projects which provide much needed expertise to community health workers and their neighbors who are trying to solve persistent public health issues, often with no funding or infrastructure. Continue reading

SEAHEC Recognized for Inspiring Rural Health Program

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Healthy Farms CHWs Certify in CPR

On Thursday Aug 1, 2019 the Arizona Rural Health Association recognized SEAHEC’s Healthy Farms Program for our work with the Winchester Heights community. SEAHEC Executive Director Gail Emrick accepted the award at the Arizona Rural Health Conference in Flagstaff.

SEAHEC has developed a community health worker driven development model that can be adapted by other rural border communities. Public health outcomes are closely linked to infrastructure.  People who live in substandard housing with old plumbing are likely to face health risks, such as contaminated drinking water, or life threatening fires. If communities have no space for assembly, or a mechanism for managing resources, the likelihood of developing public health supporting infrastructure is slim. By helping people establish key infrastructure that fosters civic engagement, communities can gain the  momentum they need overcome long standing barriers to health and safety. 

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AHEC Scholars Program Gathers Speed in Arizona, Nationally

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2020 AHEC Scholars Mariana Felix & Francisco Javier Romo

“Participating as a “SEAHEC Scholar” was one of the highlights of my graduate experience! I got to do hands-on, real-world work with students from many different health disciplines, as well as SEAHEC staff, local experts, and high school youth. SEAHEC taught us that when different health professions pool their expertise, they can tackle a problem from multiple angles at once – this can be a powerful strategy for improving community health. Health is definitely a team sport, and it was such a privilege to work and learn with this team!”

Micaela de la Rosa, MPH / MPA student, University of Arizona Continue reading

SEAHEC Helps Cochise, Graham and Greenlee
County Communities Battle COVID 19

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COVID19 RESOURCES

As the COVID-19 pandemic surged, SEAHEC and partners in Cochise, Graham and Greenlee Counties worked together to improve community capacity to stem the epidemic. The focus of the effort was threefold:

Provide Spanish translations for health education resources published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC,) The Wold Health Organization (WHO,) and the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS.) According to SEAHEC Border/Binational Program Coordinator, Brenda Olivia Sanchez, who leads the effort, many of the best, most reliable resources were not available in Spanish, limiting the ability of local community health workers and public health educators to provide outreach to our most vulnerable communities.
Make bilingual health education resources available online via seahec.org and social media to share them with community partners.
Revolutionize community health worker (CHW) training by helping CHWs-promotores de salud transition to virtual modes training and providing community health education on COVID 19. In the past, low computer literacy, lack of access to computers and deficient rural broadband connectivity has hampered the efforts of Arizona’s CHWs to access training and teaching resources and share them with each other and their community. Continue reading