Our partnership for a stronger Rockwood
The Rockwood neighborhood in East Multnomah County is one of Oregon’s most diverse and high-need communities. An area of longtime civic underinvestment, Rockwood is home to the state’s largest concentration of children and adults covered by the Oregon Health Plan. These realities made Rockwood a priority for CareOregon to invest in.
In spring 2022, CareOregon announced the start of a 10-year partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Portland Metropolitan Area, and in particular its Club at 454 SE 165th Street in Rockwood.
Our partnership included renaming the 4-year-old Rockwood location as the CareOregon Boys & Girls Club at Rockwood. CareOregon and Boys & Girls Clubs share a goal of building program partnerships that improve social health and access to health care while fostering connection, belonging and community engagement.
CareOregon’s commitment to Rockwood bolsters Boys & Girls Club of Portland Metropolitan Area’s efforts to address systemic disparities in the communities that the Club serves, says CEO Terry Johnson. “Since we joined forces in 2021, we’ve been able to significantly ramp up quality programming while giving our Club members access to more-nutritious snacks and meals during out-of-school hours.”
“The partnership with CareOregon is game-changing, and the impact translates directly to our Club members and their families.”
- Terry Johnson, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Portland Metropolitan Area
Growing our Rockwood relationship
Our relationship with the CareOregon Boys & Girls Club at Rockwood is at the center of our commitment to promote equity and inspire success and wellness for youth and families.
We’ve appreciated additional opportunities such as:
- Naming the Boys & Girls Club of Portland Metro as our official community-based organization partner for the 2022 CareOregon Starlight Parade.
- Investing in the new La Plaza Esperanza building, on the Rockwood campus, as a hub for culturally specific services benefiting Latino youth and families.
- CareOregon employees volunteering at the CareOregon Boys & Girls Club.
- Providing multi-year grant support to other partners on the Rockwood campus, including Open School, New Avenues for Youth and Holla School (now located at 146th and SE Stark).
We have much more to share about our commitment to Rockwood. See details in our 2022 partnership report.
Community Impact Stories
CareOregon Traditional Health Workers Grant Program Spotlight: Familias en Acción
CareOregon worked closely with community-based organization Familias en Acción as part of the CareOregon Traditional Health Workers Grant Program to help support and grow the organization's community health workers' workforce.
Promotores de Salud or Community Health Workers at Familias are considered part of the Traditional Health Worker workforce and have intimate knowledge and experience in the demographic in which they serve and primarily support Spanish-speaking Latino/x/e families by helping them navigate health services that best fit their needs such COVID-19 support services, family support, food access and more.
Over the past two years in the grant program, Familias has been able to build capacity for work in community health worker services, including developing curriculum to train and support community health workers. As a result, they have also been able to expand direct services to community members and one-on-one family support, as well as provide educational classes.
“I think the foundation of community health work is being from the community and supporting the community,” said Jaeme Miranda, Director of Community Health Workers Services at Familias en Acción.
“And for us, that means folks who speak the language, who are bicultural, who are supporting the needs in the community in Spanish for Latino families by helping them navigate very complex health systems. That's why working with CareOregon to grow our community health workforces has been crucial to our mission to reach as many of our community members as we can who rely on these resources."
Additionally, the partnership helped provide a space to certify community health workers and expand professional development opportunities and workforce development initiatives.
"Investing in workforce development, especially in community health workers like that at Familias, is crucial to ensuring our communities are receiving quality care," said Ifeoma Muoto, Director of Community Health Partnerships - Metro at CareOregon.
"It's been shown that community health workers with their lived experience and deep knowledge of those they serve, are an important bridge between the formal health system and underserved communities, and we've seen the tremendous difference they’ve made."
About Familias en Acción
Familias en Acción (Familias) was founded in 1998, in response to the need for a culturally specific organization to promote health for Latino/x/e communities. The mission of Familias is to strengthen the health and well-being of Latino families and communities in Oregon. Services provided include: Community Health Workers, Community health education, chronic disease self-management classes, and Diabetes Prevention Program, sexual health, nutrition and food equity, and much more.
