HERSHEY, Pa. — Tears filled Maria Hernandez’s eyes when she met Christel Woodcock. They found each other at just the right time.
Maria and her daughter, Jailia, moved to Harrisburg from El Salvador six months ago. Jaylea has cerebral palsy and requires continuous care. Maria said it was impossible to find work because she had to spend so much time caring for herself. During the school year, Jayleah takes home the food she receives through the Pennsylvania school lunch program, which gives them enough to survive.
But when summer arrives, the family has to improvise, so Maria walks to the local food bank for food. She said she was treated so disrespectfully at a nearby food pantry that she felt she couldn’t go back. So on this day in early August, she walked into the Brethren Ministry on Hummelstrasse to try out BCMPeace.
By 9:30 a.m., Allison Hill’s neighbors were already gathered in a waiting room near the church sanctuary, trying to brace themselves for the breeze from box fans installed to ease the already sweltering temperatures. Like Maria, many in the crowd spoke only Spanish.
While waiting in line, she went to a table marked United Way and struck up a conversation with a young woman with a sympathetic smile.
It turned out to be transformative. Woodcock is a care community health worker for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. For area residents, Woodcock is the face of a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Health and United Way of the Capital Region’s Contact to Care program.
Woodcock connects people with what they need. She helps them find medical, dental, and vision care. She also points them in the direction of other United Way programs that can help them find work, food and housing.
“We find people falling through the cracks,” she said.
Maria and Gyria stumbled back and forth. They tried to get health insurance but were denied. Now, the treatment they relied on at another local clinic is under threat.
Please enter your local health care worker.
“They’re conduits.”
Community health workers like Woodcock are on the front lines of grassroots efforts to reach people in need with mental health, health equity, and health and disease prevention in the communities served by the Penn State Department of Health. is in charge of
A 2021 survey of six counties served by the Pennsylvania Department of Health found:
Almost half of all respondents cannot afford health insurance, and a quarter cannot afford employer-sponsored insurance. Between 8% and 11% of all respondents reported limited access to healthy foods. 42% reported being told they had high blood pressure and 39% had high cholesterol.
Language, socio-economic and geographical barriers prevent many local residents from accessing health care or even buying fruits and vegetables for their families. This is where local medical workers come into play. Across the region, they are planting community gardens, connecting patients to care, and even helping with transportation to clinics.
“They’re conduits,” said Ashley Bisco, director of community health for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. “Community health workers are part of the community and provide a critical link between resources and the people who need them most. Every day, they support people who can’t get to Penn State Medical Center. We are delivering the center.”
Walk with vegetables
In Berks County, community health workers are the driving force behind two assistance programs.
They help organize and participate in taking walkers to Walk with a Doc, a national initiative that connects doctors and communities. For 12 weeks each summer starting in 2020, another physician from Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center takes a two- to three-mile walk through a local park with a growing group of neighborhood residents. During the winter of 2022, the group partnered with GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, which operates out of a high-rise building on Washington Street in Reading. Pedestrians took the elevator to the top floor and then walked through the building to the lower floors.
