Crescent Community Health Center (CCHC) Community Health Letter of Support fo Community Health WorkerCity of Dubuque
City Council Meeting
Consent Items # 016.
Copyrighted
May 2, 2022
ITEM TITLE: Crescent Community Health Center (CCHC) Community Health Letter of
Support to establish a Community Health Worker (CHW) to improve
health equity in the Black/African American community
SUMMARY: City Manager recommending that the city support Crescent Community
Center's grant application to establish a Community Health Worker to
improve the health equity in the Black/African American community.
SUGGESTED Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
DISPOSITION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description
Crescent Community Health Center (CCHC)
Community Letter of Support-MVM Memo
Staff Memo
Supporting Documentation
Type
City Manager Memo
Staff Memo
Supporting Documentation
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TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Crescent Community Health Center (CCHC) Community Health Letter of
Support to establish a Community Health Worker (CHW) to improve health
equity in the Black/African American community.
DATE: April 28, 2022
Office of Shared Prosperity and Neighborhood Support Director Anderson Sainci is
recommending that the city support Crescent Community Center's grant application to
establish a Community Health Worker to improve the health equity in the Black/African
American community.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
v
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:sv
Attachment
CC' Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney
Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager
Anderson Sainci, Director Office of Shared Prosperity and Neighborhood Support
THE CITY OF
DUB_
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Anderson Sainci
DATE: April 28, 2022
Dubuque
All•Me�ica Cif
2007-2012.2013
2017*2019
RE: Crescent Community Health (CCHC) Community Health Letter of Support to establish a
Community Health Worker (CHW) to improve health equity in the Black/African American
community.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memo is to request a letter of support for Crescent Community Health Community
Center (CCHC) to establish a Community Health Worker (CHW) to improve health equity in the
Black/African American community.
BACKGROUND
Crescent Community Health Center (CCHC) was founded in 2006 and provides high -quality medical, dental,
and brain health care services to vulnerable populations, improving the well-being of the whole community.
This includes outreach and service coordination for target populations who have unique needs and barriers
to accessing healthcare services.
The CCHC is seeking a letter of support from the City of Dubuque to help establish a Community Health
Worker (CHW) to improve health equity in the Black/African American community. This position would
support one of the recommendations from the Equitable Poverty Reduction & Prevent Plan (EPRPP) under
Physical and Brain Health.
DISCUSSION
The EPRPP addresses "Eight Determinants of
Poverty" that causes and influences how people
may experience poverty during their lifetime. Low-
income people and many communities of color
historically lack access to affordable and high -
quality health care services.
Crescent Community Health Center is proposing to
create a new Community Health Worker (CHW)
who would serve as a bridge between the
Black/African American community and the
healthcare system. Ideally, this person would be
culturally competent and would share ethnic,
language, socioeconomic status and/or life
experiences with the people they serve.
Health data provided by CCHC shows the following
for Black/African American in the tri-state area
Generational &
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• 1381 Black/African American patients were served by Crescent, which is 17% of the total number
of patients served
• 50% of pregnant Black/African American patients had low -birth weight babies
• Of the Black/African American patients with hypertension, 63% had controlled blood pressure
• Of the Black/African American patients with diabetes, 32% had gained control of the condition
• 33% of the Black/African American patients were at 200% or below on the Federal Poverty
Levels (note that around 60% did not report)
• 69% of Black/African American patients were on Medicaid and 23% had no insurance
resource
• 43% of Black/African American patients were identified as obese
• 22% of Black/African American patients had substance abuse disorders
• 10% of Black/African American patients had new cancer diagnoses or abnormal screening
results
Establishing a new CHW can help Black/African American reduce risk factors for disease, manage chronic
conditions, connect with local resources, and access the healthcare systems. The position would be like the
position created to support the Pacific Islander Health Project which saw tremendous community
collaboration, outreach and relationship building within the Pacific Islander community. Crescent also has a
Hispanic/Latino community health worker providing services. However, one crucial need yet to be addressed
is establishing a similar project for Blacks and African Americans, whose numbers are even higher in the
population counts. While they don't always face language barriers, they may have other service access
challenges that make it incredibly important to help link them to trusted service providers who can offer
respectful, affordable, high -quality health care services — which are the cornerstones of Crescent's
operation.
The Health Services Department and the Office of Shared Prosperity and Neighborhood Support (OSP)
strongly supports CCHC's proposal to serve the Black/African American population.
The OSP will work closely with CCHC to assist by fulfilling the following roles in partnership with CHCC:
• Lead community assessments in collaboration with the IDPH Community Health Needs
Assessment and Health Improvement Plan (CHNA-HIP) process and cross -organizational
efforts including CCHC to identify the needs of Blacks/African Americans and plan methods of
addressing gaps in services
• Share data and reports on progress made to build necessary services for Blacks/African
Americans from CCHC's population program
• Implement public engagement methods to bring the needs of Blacks/African Americans to the
greater community and to support awareness of services
• As applicable, support CCHC's efforts through city funding opportunities related to health and
access to care needs of residents, including medical, oral and behavioral health needs
REQUESTED ACTION
I respectfully request the Mayor and City Council support Crescent Community Health
Community Letter of Support to establish a Community Health Worker (CHW) to improve health
equity in the Black/African American community.
CC: Mary Rose Corrigan, Public Health Specialist
Teri Goodmann, Director of Strategic Partnership
2
THE CITY OF
DUB%TE
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
Dubuque
Office of the Mayor
JI1-AneMoUl
City Hall
I I
50 West 13th Street
I
Dubuque, IA 52001-4845
2007•2012.2013
www.cityofdubugue.org
2017*2019
April 28, 2022
Iowa Cancer Consortium
P.O. Box 859
North Liberty, IA 52317-0859
Dear Iowa Cancer Consortium Board of Directors:
On behalf of the City of Dubuque I am writing to support the Community Health Program to
Advance Cancer Prevention and Care for Blacks/African Americans at Crescent Community
Health Center (CCHC). This program is proposed to the Iowa Cancer Consortium as part of the
FY23 Iowa Cancer Plan Implementation Grant, Invitation for Proposals.
The City of Dubuque has had a long-standing collaboration with CCHC to facilitate this area's
most vulnerable residents in accessing equitable and high -quality healthcare services. The City
of Dubuque, and the Health Services Department, strongly supports CCHC's proposal to serve
the Black/African American population and will assist by fulfilling the following roles in partnership
with CHCC:
• Lead community assessments in collaboration with the IDPH Community Health Needs
Assessment and Health Improvement Plan (CHNA-HIP) process and cross -
organizational efforts including CCHC to identify the needs of Blacks/African Americans
and plan methods of addressing gaps in services
• Share data and reports on progress made to build necessary services for Blacks/African
Americans from CCHC's population program
• Implement public engagement methods to bring the needs of Blacks/African Americans
to the greater community and to support awareness of services
• As applicable, support CCHC's efforts through city funding opportunities related to health
and access to care needs of residents, including medical, oral and behavioral health
needs
CCHC was founded in 2006 and has addressed a priority for the City of Dubuque to provide
access to healthcare to its citizens. CCHC has worked alongside the public health leaders of
Dubuque to address the identified community need for accessible and affordable health care to
all. Crescent has specifically addressed these needs through continually providing and
expanding access to oral/dental health care, medical care, behavioral health needs and
addressing lifestyle behaviors in a culturally competent and equitable manner through its
population based health programs and services.
Based on existing community and poverty assessments, support for our Black/African American
population is more essential than ever. This program will assist in bringing more residents to
Service People Integrity Responsibility Innovation Teamwork
Iowa Cancer Consortium
April 28, 2022
Page 2
CCHC, linking them to cancer prevention information, screenings, and treatment services when
needed, addressing the social determinants of health, as well as the care coordination to help
with truly successful health and social outcomes of these services.
Thank you for this opportunity to share our support for this grant proposal.
Sincerely,
4aoyvorBrad avanagh
City of Dubuque
Service People Integrity Responsibility Innovation Teamwork