Community Health Worker

The Hazleton Integration Project (HIP) is currently involved with three distinct initiatives related to health care, and fourth major initiative, is scheduled to begin soon. HIP works with the PA State sponsored Wright Center to help provide school aged children with their necessary vaccinations, and when age appropriate, COVID vaccines.

Additionally, HIP and the Wright Center partner to provide adults with COVID tests, masks and vaccines representing the population most resistant to receiving medical treatment. Our NHC member will be designated as point person with all registrations from local families and contacts with the Wright Center for scheduling and personnel.

HIP desperately needs an NHC member to serve as our primary contact to continue and expand an initiative that we share with Highmark Blue Shield and the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). This new initiative allows for free medical examinations for recently arriving children so that they may take their seats in classrooms in the quickest possible manner. All of the children we serve with this program are from our neediest, most underserved families. As our resources are already stretched tight, HIP cannot currently dedicate an employee to registering families and children for this valuable program and the result has been delays that cause children to miss school. An NHC member will be tasked with all contacts between the children and their families, the team from LVHN and the HIP administrative staff. This includes scheduling, taking pertinent information from the families and provided all details to the HIP staff. Detailed records are required to be kept and stored electronically of all interactions, and a monthly summary is required to meet the specific elements of the grant from Highmark.

In early Spring 2022, HIP and the LVHN will conduct Mental Health First Aid training for all staff and personnel at the Hazleton One Community Center as well as selected personnel at various LVHN campuses in the region. The NHC member will be asked to coordinate all the full-day trainings and will serve as the primary contact between HIP, LVHN and other community partners who will be offering their employees this valuable training. Accurate records of all contacts will be required to satisfy this grant from the All One Foundation as well as a year-end summary report.

In the second quarter of 2022 HIP will undertake an initiative that will involve the entire community to help alleviate food insecurity in the greater Hazleton Area. This will be a three-year initiative administered by HIP that will involve the Hazleton Area School District, several major local businesses and nearly every social service agency in the region.

Once again, the NHC member can serve as the first point of contact for all outreach involving this innovative program. Th NHC member will be tasked with writing introductory emails, working with other team members to provide community outreach and writing updates of progress and special events through all social media channels. This food insecurity initiative is HIP’s most far-reaching initiative and it will generate statewide as well as national publicity. It has been funded by the Federal Government through a special grant that has been approved by the Health & Human Services appropriations committee and by the US Congress. Everyone working with this project will gain invaluable experience.

The community served by the NHC member is the Greater Hazleton Area, a community that was designated in 2017 as a financially “Distressed City by PA Act 47. In 2019 the median household income $40, 467; far below the PA median income of $63,600. Hazleton also had a poverty index of 22.1% as opposed to the state total of 10.1%. The 2020 census showed Hazleton has become a majority Latino population with 60%+ of the population self-identifying as such.

Our NHC member will be designated as point person with all registrations from local families and contacts with the Wright Center for scheduling and personnel for bi-weekly visits from the medical mobile unit.

An NHC member will also be tasked with all contacts between the children and their families, the team from LVHN and the HIP administrative staff. With regards to providing free medical examinations for underserved children. This includes scheduling, taking pertinent information from the families and provided all details to the HIP staff. Detailed records are required to be kept and stored electronically of all interactions, and a monthly summary is required to meet the specific elements of the grant from Highmark.

The NHC member will be asked to coordinate all the full-day, Mental Health First Aid trainings and will serve as the primary contact between HIP, LVHN and other community partners who will be offering their employees this valuable training.

The NHC member will serve as the first point of contact for all outreach involving HIP’s innovative “Eradicating Food Insecurity” program. The NHC member will be tasked with writing introductory emails, working with other team members to provide community outreach and writing updates of progress and special events through all social media channels.

Bilingual, Spanish/English, is required.