Overview and Project Goals | Children and Families Served | Healthy Steps for Young Children | Community Outreach | Evaluation

Community Outreach

This project includes vigorous outreach to communities, community organizations, and to other departments within Swope Health Services (such as Obstetrics/Gynecology and Women, Infants, and Children) so that their staff members are informed about the program and can refer patients as appropriate.

An important part of community outreach will be “health ambassadors”, peer educators on staff who are residents of the target communities, have similar backgrounds, share a common language with the target populations, and who will distribute information about the Pediatric Screening and Intervention Project throughout the neighborhoods. Outreach work for other programs at Swope has shown that such connections with target communities allow the health ambassadors to establish trusting relationships critical to gaining community members’ acceptance of information regarding the importance of preventive care, and assistance with appointment scheduling for pediatric services.