Community First

Kuleana health (program 11)- this health literacy program, 'kuleana health' translates to mean 'responsibility for one's health and the wellbeing of others'. In the scope of this two-year project, Community First will bring together a consortium of community-based health centers and community-based organizations to collectively develop, organize, and develop a health literacy program that targets our most adversely impacted racial and ethnic minorities, rural communities as well as socially vulnerable populations. The goals of this project include covid-19 vaccination and public health awareness as well as basic health literacy associated with primary care utilization, basic health screenings, and incorporating language and culture familiar to these populations.

Our kuleana (program 10)- the goal of our kuleana is to inform, educate and galvanize our Community to stop the spread of covid-19 by promoting known safety protocols while connecting the message of personal and Community kuleana as a reason 'why'. Our kuleana utilizied many media platforms including tv (both local and state), radio, newspaper, billboards, (signage) and social media (facebook, instagram and tiktok) to blanket our Community with messaging that featured compelling content and engaged local influencers with large followings to promote following saftey guidleines.

Access to care (program 14)- access to care is a comprehensive healthcare assessment that combines data from resident surveys, input from healthcare and social service providers, and feedback from policymakers into a snapshot to better understand the terrain of the healthcare landscape in hawai'iHawaii'i. The vision of access to care is a community-focused healthcare collaborative that ensures everyone in Hawaii has timely access to quality healthcare, close to home. Creating more access to quality health care via informed data is the goal. Access to care is a collaborative project with communtiy First as the consortium leader of over half a dozen healthcare and social service-oriented organizations. Additional funding for this project comes from grants form the state of hawai'Hawaii'i department of health and in-kind support of our Community. Other partners include: county of hawai'iHawaii'i, hawai'Hawaii'i health systems corporation, hawai'Hawaii'i state rural health association, hilo medical center foundation, hmsa, pacific basin telehealth resource center and hawai'Hawaii'i project delivery. Access to care seeks to understand gaps in specialty and ancillary services. Data from the Community health needs assessment will be analyzed from patients who are flown off-island for procedures in an effort to understand what services can be administered locally to keep care as local as possible. The assessment also aims to find what is working in the healthcare system and extrapolate those models of service to build upon. Once final, they will be shared with policy makers, healthcare systems and social service providers so that they can work together to streamline services, identify gaps in care and effect real change across the state.