PRESS RELEASE: HCAN launches new community calendar

Health Care Access Now (HCAN) wants to create a space where organizations can collaborate to share events and resources that can help bring the region closer to achieving health equity. In that spirit, it has created a Community Events & Resources calendar. 

• Any community member or organization is welcome to submit events and resources by using the online submission form.
• One-time events, such as conferences and fundraisers, are listed—as well as ongoing events, such as enrichment programs or support groups.
• The web page also includes space for listing community resources, such as surveys, applications, and more.

HCAN trains and dispatches Community Health Workers (CHWs) to work one-on-one with marginalized community members. CHWs use a proven system, called the Pathways Community Hub, to identify and eliminate obstacles to clients’ good health outcomes. 

HCAN would like to see this calendar grow to become a robust resource. It is its hope that it can become a space that inspires others to embrace action through both participation and planning.

Health Care Access Now (HCAN) recently launched its new Community Events & Resources calendar. While there is always a lot going on in the Cincinnati region—and a lot of it has to do with achieving health equity—there has not been a centralized location for organizations to post events and resources.

HCAN hopes to change that with its calendar by listing health-centered conferences, fundraisers, enrichment programs, support groups, surveys, applications, and other resources. This new page is meant to be a collaborative space; any community member or organization is welcome to submit events and resources by using the online submission form.

“We’d like to grow this calendar so that it becomes a true community resource,” says Sarah Mills, CEO of HCAN. “Our mission is to further health equity in the region; this resource will help us to do just that.”

Events to be posted can center on community health or individual health. For example, All Moms Empowered to Nurse runs a Breast-Feeding Support Group listed in the Ongoing Event section of the new webpage. HCAN also posts events for Community Health Workers (CHWs) to continue their education, raise funds for CHW certification scholarships, and to raise awareness about common issues that many of its clients may face.

“The calendar is just getting started,” says Mills. “It’s my hope that organizations and individuals see it as a go-to reference point for health-related events and resources in the Cincinnati area.” 

The spirit behind this calendar is the same that drives HCAN to continue to effect health change on individual and systemic levels in the region. Having a centralized repository of events and resources will only allow marginalized communities and the people who serve them to improve the quality of their health and their lives. This online resource builds on HCAN’s mission to provide outreach to uninsured and other vulnerable populations in the Cincinnati region.