Building Bridges, Knowledge and Health Coalition

Building Bridges, Knowledge and Health

MONICA HIDALGO • Manager • moh9017@nyp.org x DEBORAH ACEVEDO, RN • Nurse Coordinator • acevedd@nyp.org KAYLEEN GARCIA • Program Coordinator • kag9132@nyp.org

Mission and Goals

Building Bridges, Knowledge and Health (BBKH) is a coalition of faithand community-based organizations that collaborate to decrease racial/ ethnic health disparities and enhance the health and well-being of residents of Northern Manhattan, Harlem, and the Bronx. Faith-based members are a valuable resource for the BBKH coalition. They work as conduits of good health to respond to community health needs and implement interventions that achieve meaningful and lasting results.

NewYork-Presbyterian’s Outreach team has collaborated with BBKH member churches—some include the Van Nest Assembly of God, Convent Avenue Baptist Church, the Narrow Door Church, Christ Church, and Grace Tabernacle—to provide free vision and blood pressure screenings and instruction in hands-only CPR training. We have also collaborated with the Weill Cornell HeartSmarts program to provide two 12-week programs to two churches. One of our BBKH Spanish members received program training and was able to provide the first-ever HeartSmarts class in Spanish to the Washington Heights community. Both co-hosts saw lasting lifestyle changes and marked improvements in weight loss, BMI, BP, A1C, and waist circumference.

Number of People Reached

4,000

Key Accomplishments

In 2019, NewYork-Presbyterian, in partnership with BBKH program members, again supported New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray’s ThriveNYC initiative by offering Mental Health First Aid trainings to 200 community members.

We hosted our Third Annual Clergy Summit, where nearly 100 faith- and community-based organizations participated in learning more on the topic of “Homelessness: Learning From the Faith Community.” Ydanis Rodriguez, NYC Council member for the 10th District, spoke about homelessness in our community, and Patricia Hernandez, LCSW, spoke on the housing crisis. Panelists from around the city’s faithbased community presented their programs that address the needs of the homeless.

Each year, BBKH partners with NewYorkPresbyterian’s Outreach Program to host Hope Day in the Bronx, attracting over 1,500 city residents and providing access to free health screenings, information, counseling, resources, medical referrals, and health insurance information. Through telephone followup, participants are connected to primary care, and health counseling is reinforced. At Hope Day in the Bronx, we team up with a dozen churches that jointly help carry out this event.

Our involvement in the faith-based community also includes work that benefits the homeless population:

•Two health luncheons in the Bowery

Mission Women’s and Men’s Residency

Centers.

•Homeless Outreach “Don’t Walk By” events (every Saturday in February)—in partnership with the Salvation Army,

New York City Rescue Mission, and the

Bowery Mission. We provide funding for backpacks, as well as medical care during the events. NewYork-Presbyterian sent RNs and other volunteers to both the 2019 and the 2020 events. We also donated backpacks for the homeless guests at the events.

•Health education and screenings, in collaboration with local churches and community organizations. In 2019, we continued to partner with the Church of the Epiphany to provide monthly blood pressure and HIV screenings and counseling at its weekly soup kitchen, which provides meals to guests—mostly adults who are homeless or food insecure. We were able to award a guest a free digital blood pressure machine because of the improvement in blood pressure and weight loss.

In December, in partnership with staff from the Milstein community outreach committee, we provided free reading glasses, thermals, and coats to homeless shelters. We also contributed thermals and coats to homeless youth who participate in the Drop-In Program at the Dominican Women’s Development

Center. Health screenings and coats were also provided to the Washington Heights women’s shelter, in collaboration with nurses from Milstein Hospital.

During the height of the pandemic, we had to think of new ways to continue providing support to BBKH members. In April 2020, we held our first-ever virtual monthly BBKH meeting, in which we were able to increase core member attendance by nearly 150 percent. Each meeting was tailored to addressing current public health emergency concerns and resources that would continue aiding in the education of COVID-19 and how to best care for ourselves and those around us. In June 2020, we hosted a two-part virtual series in which a community member discussed “Church Readiness in the Midst of COVID-19,” a workshop focusing on the church’s role as a pillar in the community during pandemic recovery and planning. We engaged about 25-30 BBKH members, and all had their own scenarios to share and questions to ask. As a result of this series, we have partnered with a BBKH member to compile a virtual directory that will serve as a resource to our communities, listing congregations that provide virtual services with details of their meeting times and links/ platforms.