A career at Neighborhood Health Center isn't for everyone. Connecting with the mission of providing high quality healthcare with kindness to make a positive difference in people's lives is a big part of working for the organization. Employees at Neighborhood are known as "ambassadors," and ambassadors have many opportunities throughout the year to get involved in activities that can improve patients' lives in ways beyond a doctor's office visit. These activities can range from patient appreciation events, to health fairs, and more. They also can donate to a fund to help patients who are facing obstacles, this is known as the Ambassador Giving program.

Neighborhood's community health department oversees many of these programs and activities. Their focus is to provide support to the clinical team and to provide social support to our patients. They work to address and help patients to navigate any barriers that are associated with the social determinants of health, such as housing, transportation, food insecurity, health literacy, insurance assistance, and more. 

“We work to address these things because they can pose barriers to accessing care for many of our patients,” explained Elise Robinson, Director of Community Health. “The work we do is to eliminate those barriers as much as we can for our patients.”

The community health department also works together in conducting outreach to new patients through health fairs, as well as coordinating and participating in community events throughout the year with fellow ambassadors. They also work to strengthen our partnerships. This includes partnerships with insurance companies, and bringing community partners like phone service provider Gen-X Communications and the Massachusetts Avenue Project mobile market to Neighborhood locations for patients. Since August, the community health department and Gen-X were able to connect 64 patients with cell phone service. 

“Since identifying the needs of our patients and expanding our social support structure through the community health worker role, we’ve been able to support close to 1500 patients this year,” said Elise. 

Elise says the credit goes to Neighborhood’s dedicated team of community health workers Jesus Linares Jr., Kaylee Pomeroy, and Maria Gonzalez-Perez.

“We have the role of having a relationship with the patient. Our role is hearing the patient’s story and what they need,” explained Elise. “That is where ‘Year End Giving’ comes in.”

End of the year giving to show care and gratitude for patients is a long standing tradition at Neighborhood. Through the ambassador giving program and with the support of Neighborhood ambassadors, the community health department was able to provide dozens of families and individuals with gift cards for this year’s ‘Year End Giving’ initiative. Elise explains that this initiative is another way that Neighborhood shows our patients that we really do care. 

“When we say ‘Welcome to Neighborhood’ it is not just a slogan,” said Elise. “We are embracing you and we want to provide the best care to you and your family.”

If you are interested in giving to Neighborhood Health Center, please visit: https://nhcwny.org/about/donate