Community Health Improvement Partnership

Mental Well-being and Housing Stability

by Maya Hajny Fernandez

Background

During the summer of 2020, I worked remotely as a public health intern for CHIP, the Community Health Improvement Partnership of Hennepin County. CHIP works to improve people’s health and address health and racial inequities. In the current phase of the CHIP partnership, it aims to assist community partners in becoming trauma-informed organizations and to support spiritual, faith, and cultural leaders to deal with trauma for their community. It also aims to reduce housing barriers and support community-led initiatives to increase social connectedness. Housing stability and mental well-being are interconnected with health and social inequities, and the goal of the organization is to use social connections and allies to address these problems. Lack of housing or lack of mental well-being can lead to a host of health issues, but community prioritization of these components can lead to improved lives and opportunities to address other health problems. This experience contributes to the field of public health through discussion and action within the partnership. CHIP's power in the public health field comes through the community partners and conversation that occurs during action mean and executive board meetings.

Goals of the Organization

The partnership includes members from various metro health departments, Hennepin County Public Health, and community partners involved in housing stability and community mental well-being. My job title was CHIP Public Health Intern, and the project was funded by the Taylor Public Health Fellowship at Macalester. The partnership consists of many different types of community members, including spiritual leaders, governmental health agencies, mental health providers, and housing developers. CHIP focuses primarily on community mental wellbeing and housing stability, but during the summer of 2020, it also focused on community relief through mini-grants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work completed

My work with this organization addressed many different aspects of health from the lens of housing stability and community mental well-being.
Image citation: Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. MCPHS Recognizes National Public Health Week. https://www.mcphs.edu/about-mcphs/news/public-health-week.

During this internship, I drafted multiple research documents for CHIP and a letter on behalf of the executive committee in support of expanded telehealth services. I also reviewed community member mini-grant applications and revision of the review process and helped to revise a Request for Proposals application to fund 4 community organizations for up to $25,000 each. I had the opportunity to assist with evaluation and use survey software to receive feedback in order to coordinate and report my findings back to the organization and to make recommendations to action teams (community mental well-being and housing stability). I learned about governmental health organizations, racial equity and health, and housing stability and community and mental well-being in Hennepin County. My favorite part of the internship was the meetings I was able to attend, which included the CHIP Executive Committee with CEOs and leaders from health organizations across Hennepin County.

Over the course of the summer, I explored what a career at a health department and a government organization looks like, and how to be a successful employee in that part of the industry. I had the chance to meet with multiple health jurisdictions and executive team members on a project, and learn how organizations work together effectively. I attended executive committee and action team meetings to gain insight into how the team works and about work at a health department. I also received training, practice, and feedback from my supervisor to develop my skills in evaluating a project and experience in community health, and completed informational interviews in the field of public health. I completed daily journal entries detailing my accomplishments for the day and how I can improve for tomorrow, with a weekly longer reflection entry paying special attention to how I am staying focused while doing online work, a new piece of information I learned, and reflections on this area of study as a potential career.

Lessons Learned

As a result of this project, I learned about working at a government-run public health agency and the work that community partners are doing every day. I also examined the connections between community mental well-being and housing stability and other topics relevant to the CHIP partnership. In addition, I learned more about the intersection between racial equity and health. My greatest professional takeaways had to do with effective collaboration between coworkers, departments, and organizations due to the partnership aspect of CHIP’s work. My education in CGH has definitely given me unique perspectives on public health, especially during a global pandemic. Classes I took before and during the pandemic gave me insight into infectious disease and the health inequities that come hand in hand with COVID-19.

References

Community Health Improvement Partnership. (2021). CHIP Community Commitments. https://www.hennepin.us/CHIP

Maya Hajny Fernandez

I am a Macalester senior majoring in Biology with a minor in Spanish and a Community and Global Health concentration. My general interest in Biology centers on how climate change impacts human health. I am from Portland, Oregon but live off-campus in Saint Paul. I recently have taken on cooking, baking, and knitting as new hobbies. I love to run, hike, ski, and sing in my free time as well. After Mac, I plan to find a job in the field of public health before moving on to grad school to get my MPH in a year or two.

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