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Community Health

Enlace maximizes local resources and builds the capacity and continuing education of community health workers (CHWs) to promote holistic wellness and equity, prevent chronic disease, and increase access to high-quality healthcare, healthy food and other resources.

 

Promotorxs de Salud

Enlace trains and employs community leaders as Community Health Workers (CHWs), or Promotorxs de Salud. A CHW is a public health worker who is a trusted member of the community in which they work; this allows them to serve as liaisons between residents and providers, and to validate the knowledge, culture and traditions of local families. Enlace Promotorxs provide health education and peer support groups, and they support community members with public benefits and health insurance enrollment, healthcare navigation, and mental health and basic needs referrals. They are able to assist residents in overcoming barriers to accessing care, such as the need for safe transportation or child care, and in connecting with additional resources, such as community-based programs and food, housing and legal services. Their work leads to better access to services, improved quality of service delivery and improved health outcomes.

 

To learn more about our Promotorxs, click here.

Community Care Team

In the fall of 2020, Enlace developed a Pandemic Response Team, which allowed the organization to expand and diversify its CHW model in order to respond to the overwhelming need that the pandemic had created. Enlace recognized the need sustain this growth into the future, as it increased its ability to support community members in addressing challenges that existed before and will continue to exist "after" the pandemic. At the end of 2021, Enlace renamed this team – which includes CHWs, as well as staff that facilitate the management and distribution of emergency funding – the Community Care Team. They focus on supporting community members in learning about COVID prevention and care, navigating COVID testing and vaccination options, accessing emergency financial assistance, and connecting to other essential resources.

Community Gardens
Community Gardens
Organizing and Advocacy

Enlace works with community leaders to transform empty lots into community gardens. These spaces provide opportunities for healthy food production, safe outdoor recreation, community-based education and community building. They also serve as powerful models for sustainable practices and conservation, and they engage youth and families in environmental education through collaborations with key partners. Gardeners gather weekly throughout the growing season, and each site hosts family-friendly workshops, classes, trainings, volunteer days and celebrations. Garden design and activities are relevant to and respectful of the diverse cultures and traditions of Little Village families, and they promote the preservation of indigenous knowledge and practice.

 

Gardens directly supported by Enlace include:​

  • 6062Trees: Sembrando Bajo el Sol: 26th and Trumbull

  • Mr. Keeler’s Pumpkin Eaters/El Jardín de la Calabaza: 25th and Keeler

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To volunteer in the gardens, click here.

Organizing and Advocacy

Enlace’s efforts to promote a healthy community are driven by community leaders. Most of the Enlace health team staff and a large percentage of Promotorxs and garden leaders are Spanish-dominant, immigrant mothers who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the initiatives of this focus area. Promotorxs take extensive training, and Enlace created a version of its Leadership Academy tailored to local Promotorxs. Leaders have focused on supporting organizing efforts and policy advocacy campaigns focused on improving access to healthcare for youth and residents that are uninsured and/or undocumented.

 

Enlace’s health team has facilitated a number of local networks. Promoviendo, Abogando, y Educando por la Salud (PAES) is a network of predominantly Spanish-speaking Latinx community health workers based in Little Village that coordinates peer support, training, professional development and health advocacy efforts. Hope Response Coalition (HRC) convened local organizations focused on the provision of basic needs and currently facilitates an emergency assistance fund for families in need. Finally, the Little Village Gardeners Coalition (LVGC) focuses on sharing resources and developing neighborhood-wide strategies that improve access to healthy food for Little Village families in order to improve community health and reduce the prevalence of chronic disease. To learn more about each of these networks, click here for PAES, LVGC and HRC.

 

For more information about the Enlace Leadership Academy, click here.

Partnerships

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CommunityHealth is a free clinic and medical home for adults who are uninsured and living on low incomes.

CommunityHealth at Enlace provides:

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  • Check-up and lab work (temperature, blood pressure, height, weight, blood sugar, etc.).

  • In-person or video visit with a CommunityHealth primary or specialty care provider.

  • Referrals to other CommunityHealth services, like dental and pharmacy.

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What does it cost?


There is no fee for services at CommunityHealth at Enlace.
 

To qualify for care:

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  • You must have no health insurance.

  • You must not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.

  • Your income must be at or below 300% of the

  • Federal Poverty Level (*For example, it is $83,250 for a family of four, and $40,770 for an individual.).

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