Project T.E.A.C.H. Success Story: The Women's Resource Center
Project T.E.A.C.H. (Teaching Equity to Advance Community Health), is a project funded by the Colorado Health Foundation and provides targeted training, technical assistance and support to community based organizations involved in projects that improve health care access and promote healthy living among underserved populations. For more information about Project T.E.A.C.H., click here .
Story by Bill Stout, Development Director Women's Resource Center
I began work as the Development Director of the Women’s Resource Center in November of 2010. At that time I had a great deal of nonprofit human service experience, including grant writing, but no experience in public health and disease prevention. I found the Project T.E.A.C.H. training to be very useful and unlike any other available training because it was so clearly focused on public health and health/wellness promotion. Project T.E.A.C.H. helped me in three primary ways:
Training
The two-day training was detailed enough to be useful. The fact that it was face-to-face training was important because we were able to discuss ideas in detail, explore questions, and have healthy debate. It was a morale builder to understand that other agencies have similar challenges and to brainstorm together about solutions. The class provided a flash drive with a large amount of detailed resources which I have used frequently.
Networking
Through Project T.E.A.C.H., I made several contacts in my own and nearby communities that I have met with since the training for collaboration. My agency is now stronger because we are now familiar with more people and programs that are potential partners.
Follow-up Consulting
Two months after the training, my agency applied for a very competitive grant at the federal level--Healthy Communities 2020. I asked the Project T.E.A.C.H. staff for assistance in planning this project and writing the grant, and they provided expert advice and a critique with short turnaround time. The Women’s Resource Center was recently notified that we received the maximum amount of this grant. The grant will allow us to diversify our health efforts to include Type 2 diabetes prevention and early detection.
In addition, we also received a grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Office of Health Disparities, to establish our “Promotoras: Saving Women’s Lives in Larimer County” project. The project has two main goals: providing more patient navigation services in a culturally competent manner and strengthening the collaborative efforts of women’s healthcare providers. No member of this health care team provides all services, so efforts to coordinate services are vital to support a full continuum of care. The project will share the cultural competency expertise of the Women’s Resource Center with medical providers. Latina women suffer disproportionately from negative outcomes of breast and cervical cancers. This project combats this disparity by improving and expanding the efforts of the Women’s Resource Center in Latina communities to provide early detection and follow up services for these two common and deadly cancers, and to empower women to better manage their own health. The project combines interventions that mutually support one another: education, access to care, referrals, screening, and treatment. Promotoras and Patient Navigators will implement these interventions. The Promotoras Project will reach 6,190 Latinas in its first year and at least 100 women will be connected with cervical screening, 20 will be connected with cervical cancer treatment, and 100 will receive mammograms. The staff members of eight medical providers will receive education related to cultural competency for serving Latinas.
