Community Health Partnership of Illinois Making an Impact
Did you know that almost every piece of fruit you eat, the vegetables that nourish your bodies and other farm-raised food is available to you because of the hard-work of migrants? Approximately 60,000 migrant farm workers will leave their homes and spend some time of the year working in Illinois to bring access to food. A million more will work the land in other locations throughout the US making up 73% of agricultural workers in the US. You may also not know that a large percentage of these individuals and families have incomes far below the poverty line and most do not receive sick leave or health insurance. For over 50 years, Community Health Partnership of Illinois (CHP) has been proud to serve these individuals and their families by providing them with high quality, health care at minimal or no cost.
The mission of Community Health Partnership of Illinois (CHP) is to improve the health and well-being of migrant and seasonal farmworkers as well as to serve all medically vulnerable populations in rural Illinois. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, CHP provides quality, accessible and culturally responsive medical, dental, behavioral health and pharmacy services to more than 10,000 patients each year.
Currently, CHP operates six rural Illinois clinics located in six Illinois Counties: Aurora, Champaign, Harvard, Kankakee, Mendota and Princeville, and with a purchase from the help of Aleph Group Inc. (AGI) a new mobile medical/dental unit will help CHP to reach our patients in the community with the intent to offer even greater access to patients who need our services. This addition will reduce transportation barriers to much needed primary preventative healthcare and address one of many social determinants of health out population is faced with.
“With funding made possible by Illinois Covid-19 funding and Governors J. B. Pritzkers support, we are proud to add a mobile medical/dental care unit to our service offerings. Designed and customized by Aleph Group Inc., our mobile unit will expands our reach into underserved rural communities; to the uninsured, underserved, to farms and plants where farmers work and live and to the many others needing convenient affordable primary health care. Staff are really excited to be able to serve more, especially children and seniors who are often in most need of mobile services.,” noted Eleace Sawyers, CEO of CHP.
Ninety-nine percent (99%) of CHP patients live in low-income households and over 75% of our patients do not have health insurance. The organization provides care to the whole family – from birth to the elderly. At the heart of CHP is the Promotores de Salud program, our Community Health Workers and Navigators. This program breaks down barriers and brings programs and services to the people who need them the most. The CHP team visits and partners with farms, schools and other businesses where their patients work, go to school or reside. They educate the community on health issues, enroll patients and their families in our programs, conduct health risk assessment and health screenings and assist folks with other related services to help our patients receive the services they need.
COVID-19 has dramatically impacted farming and migrant workers at a disproportionate rate (16% positivity rates in summer of 2020). Of special note, CHP continues to be at the frontlines for COVID-19, providing safety information as well as administering more than 3,000 COVID-19 tests.
“We are also pleased to note that we have begun offering COVID-19 vaccines across our rural communities and will have administered over 9,000 vaccines via scheduled events and in partnership with the State of Illinois, Prism Health Labs, Fifth Street Renaissance and Illinois Migrant Council to ensure vaccines are available to this population” stated Sawyers.
CHP welcomes donations to ensure that our farmworkers receive much needed care.
For more information about CHP or to make a gift, please visit www.chpofil.org or www.chpofil.org/donate/.
Upon recently working with Community Health Partnership of Illinois to build their Mobile Clinic, we learned more about their mission and impact in medically vulnerable communities. We felt inspired to share their mission to bring attention to the positive and everchanging impact they are making in latinx migrant and seasonal farmworker and other underserved communities.
“Join me in bringing attention to this inspiring organization and supporting CHP’s efforts in making healthcare accessible to underserving communities.”
-Jales Mello, CEO of AGI