Mariposa Community Health Center: Delivering Community-Based Health Services to Santa Cruz County Residents for 25 years!!
Twenty-five years ago, Platicamos Salud (We Talk Health), now known as Mariposa Community Health Center’s Department of Community Health Services, was born from a federally funded Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant. By 1993, the department had a Director and 24 trained Promotoras de Salud in pre-natal care education. The staff worked out of a one-room converted storage modular, a far cry from the modern two-story building on N. Mastick Way that the department has occupied since 2002. Over the last 25 years, Community Health Services has grown into a department with 44 employees that offers a wide range of promotora-delivered programs in health promotion and disease prevention. In addition to extensive pre-natal care services, Community Health Services provides classes in cardiovascular disease prevention, hearing loss strategies to improve quality of life, risky behavior prevention, citizenship classes and many, many more. In the last year, Community Health Services expanded its services to Mariposa’s Rio Rico location.
Community Health Services is known as a leader in the use of Promotora de Salud driven community health services. As the heart and soul of the department, promotoras are individuals who truly reflect the cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic characteristics of their fellow community residents. Because of this, promotoras inspire trust and confidence within the community and are able to connect to the hard-to-reach segments of the population. On any given day, Mariposa’s promotoras can be seen throughout in the community conducting home visits, teaching classes, conducting outreach or participating in community events.
In 2015, Community Health Services was recognized by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) as the 2014 Outstanding Rural Health Program in the United States.
Mariposa looks forward to continuing this great work in the community for another 25 yrs!
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