Healthy
Albany Park
Photo Gallery: Health Access Project
Members of the HAP Positive Youth Development and Wellness Action Areas worked together to design and implement a program that both raises compliance with Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) health standards and increases the use of community based public health providers here in or close to Albany Park. This project sought to address a number of the underlying factors in non-compliance with CPS health standards and non-usage of medical providers. Transportation, language and cultural barriers, immigration status, the complexity of navigating public services, knowledge of resources and desire for preventative care all contribute to the reticence that some Albany Park residents feel in using available health systems.
Through our collective actions we encouraged health access and assisted families to overcome some of the barriers that kept them from seeking care. HAP drew from its own membership and other community partners to work with schools, health clinics, volunteers, businesses, elected officials and others.
In the beginning of the '05-'06 school year, the group outreached to the families of students who were non-compliant with the shots and physicals needed for school. Families met at schools on two evenings and one Saturday in late September. Transportation was available to take them to clinics. Once at the clinics, volunteers helped families fill out paper work, provided child care for families who had brought more than one child and assisted families in applying for any public aid (including KidCare, now known as All Kids) for which they might be eligible. Patients saw doctors that spoke their language and a good time was had by all.
The Health Access Project will take place again in early October 2006. Please call the HAP coordinator if you have any questions.
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| Families wait in front of Volta School. After signing in and making sure that families had their immunization records, volunteers helped guide participants to buses heading for various clinics. | Volunteers gather at schools preparing to help check in participating families. |
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| At the clinics volunteers provide healthy snacks, child care and assistance in filling out paper work, while encouraging other family members to register for health visits and registering eligible families for public aid benefits. | Families filling out paperwork. |
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| Smiling after visiting the doctor, patients could relax and have a snack before taking the bus back to the school. |
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Radhika
Sharma-Gordon |
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