Winchester Heights - A Model for Community Empowerment Short Version
Channel: SEAHECMEDIA
Date: 2021-02-08

This documentary chronicles SEAHEC's work over the past decade to create a community health worker driven rural development model that can lower barriers to creating a safe and healthy community for families in low-income, rural communities. Our model, developed  through our Healthy Farms Program, can be adapted by other rural communities that lack public health supporting infrastructure. 

THE PROBLEM
Public health outcomes are closely linked to infrastructure.  People who live in substandard housing with old plumbing are likely to face health risks, such as contaminated drinking water, or life threatening fires. If communities have no space for assembly, and lack a mechanism for managing resources, the likelihood of developing public health supporting infrastructure is slim. 
Over a million people live in un-regulated "wildcat" settlements along the US/Mexico border. The lack of regulation ensures that community residents, many of whom are immigrants, live in third-world conditions, unless they can individually cover the cost of installing separate sewer, water, street lighting and safety services for each property. 
The federal government has designated these neighborhoods as colonias: communities within 150 miles of the US/Mexico border that lack basic public health supporting infrastructure. There is funding directed at small rural communities for development, the communities most in need can't meet the eligibility requirements, due to lack of local infrastructure and organizational capacity to manage funding. 

OUR SOLUTION
By helping people establish key infrastructure that fosters civic engagement, communities can gain the  momentum they need overcome long standing barriers to health and safety. 

SEAHEC has received local and national recognition for our work with the Winchester Heights community in northern Cochise County, Arizona. In 2019 the Arizona Rural Health Association (ARHA) recognized SEAHEC with their "Inspiring Rural Health Program Award,"  for our work in Winchester Heights. The purpose of  the award is to "recognize a program within a community, at the local or state level, that involves one or more health professionals or entities, and promotes or facilitates the development of rural health delivery systems.”

In 2020, the National AHEC Organization (NAO) awarded SEAHEC with the Center of Excellence for Community Programs. NAO recognized SEAHEC for our unique model of community development that incorporates training for health professions students with our community health worker driven model for improving rural health and safety in marginalized communities. 

SEAHEC's Healthy Farms program hosts health professions students and helps them conduct health related community service projects alongside community residents and our Healthy Farms community health workers. This strategy provides much needed expertise to community health workers and their neighbors who are trying to solve persistent public health issues, often with no funding or infrastructure.
The Legacy Foundation of Southeast Arizona provided generous financial support for construction of the Winchester Heights Community Center, as well as support for recruitment and training of community members to form a governing board for the center. This resulted in the 2020 launch of the Winchester Heights Health Organization, Inc. Which manages the community center and provides leadership for local development  projects. The Legacy Foundation of Southeast Arizona is an Arizona charitable organization whose philanthropic mission is to promote population health and community wellness throughout Southeast Arizona.
The US Environmental Protection Agency provided funding and technical assistance for a community-wide health assessment and community education which resulted in a significant improvement of residents' drinking water. 
This documentary is dedicated to the memory of Josefina Salazar, a founding member of Winchester Heights and our community health worker team, who we lost to complications from COVID-19 last year.