Health law outreach to Asian Americans lags

Black immigrant women are serving as informal "health connectors" in their communities, using shared language and cultural understanding to help immigrants navigate the U.S. health care system. These unpaid navigators guide people through insurance applications, connect them to doctors, host community events and distribute multilingual information to break down barriers to health care.

The OmniSalud program provides zero-premium health care coverage to low-income immigrants without documentation, helping make health care more accessible for those who normally struggle to get it due to their legal status. This year, the program expanded to 11,000 slots and hopes to continue growing.

The Citizens-Led Tracking Campaign bridges the gap between the implementation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Funds and the effective delivery of healthcare by sending citizens — called community champions — out on the grassroots level to track healthcare funding and ensure everyone who is eligible takes advantage of the care. Through the community champions’ efforts, 32,000 low-income and vulnerable individuals have been enrolled in the program.

Toronto’s Vaccine Engagement Teams Grant has awarded $5.5 million to community organizations in 140 neighborhoods to hire and train local ambassadors for vaccine outreach. Because the ambassadors share a lived experience with the communities, they can effectively identify the barriers people face. The on-the-ground effort includes sharing information, advocating for community needs, and helping people access services. The outreach focuses on people often overlooked by government services, such as unhoused people and people who do not speak English or have precarious immigration status.

To better serve Mexican citizens living in the U.S., the Mexican government created an initiative known as Health Windowns that helps bridge the gap between immigrants and preventive health care access. Although anyone is welcome to visit the free resource centers or any of the community pop-ups for medical attention, the program targets those who lack health insurance or are hesitant to receive traditional medical care.

The Twilight Education Club is a non-profit working to break down the barriers – transportation, child care and cost – that typically prevent the economically disadvantaged from accessing social services such as language classes. While the Twilight program is specifically geared toward the needs of the parents - getting better jobs and securing greater stability - the long-term focus remains on creating future opportunities for their children.

After sudden U.S. government funding cuts jeopardized South Africa's HIV programs, Limpopo's Hlokomela Clinic quickly reorganized around existing resources, training community health workers to identify and encourage farm workers to visit still-operational clinic sites for HIV testing. By leveraging volunteers, they partially offset the impact of losing their dedicated HIV testing outreach team and program funding.

Modeled after a similar program in Costa Rica, Neighborhood Nursing has teams of nurses and community health workers who host weekly visits throughout the community to provide free medical care — particularly preventative care — to those who need it. Neighborhood Nursing has helped build trust between residents and healthcare workers and aims to serve more than 4,000 people within the next year.

Black parents are at greater risk of experiencing serious complications during pregnancy and childbirth, which is why preserving Black birth care, like doulas, is so important to preventing unnecessary deaths and medical interventions. The doula community is growing and there’s currently a push among local doulas and providers to grow the network of doulas of color to increase the accessibility of relevant and representative birth care.

LGBTQ+ organizations in the South, like The Campaign for Southern Equality, are raising money to give to families seeking gender-affirming care services for transgender youth. The money is used to cover travel costs to states without care bans, as well as gender-affirming clothing and other supplies. So far, the group has distributed about 350 $500 grants. In addition to funding, the group also works to ensure families have accurate information about gender-affirming care bans in their state, as the legal landscape is confusing and constantly changing.