The Worcester Parent/Caregiver Guide to Community Resources is one of the most robust and regularly updated community resource compilations for the city of Worcester, with many resources also serving the broader region, and now in a digital version in English and Spanish. You can order hard copies in English or Spanish for $4ea. Parents can get a free copy at the Worcester Family Resource Center, 20 Cedar Street, Worcester MA 01609
The Worcester Public Schools list of Summer Meal Sites provide food for Worcester Public School children all throughout the summer. The website linked above includes a spreadsheet so that you can filter the sites based on location. Most programs, if they have not already started, will begin by the first of July.
Patients, family members and clinical staff can all use CommunityHELP.net (aka findhelp.org) to find resources sorted b zip code. The UMass Memoria clinical system and many community partners have invested time and money into keeping this resource updated. Training is available through the Office for Clinical Integration for designing favorite folders, using within EPIC and more.
Public Health Communication Collaborative Plain Language Guide - Are you using plain language best practices to convey health messages to public audiences? Here's a handy guide with useful reference links. The Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC) creates and amplifies tools, resources, and learning opportunities for communicators designed to address public health issues, build public confidence, and identify and counter misinformation. Initially formed in August 2020 to provide science-based messaging resources on the COVID-19 pandemic, today PHCC supports communicators on a range of timely issues across the field of public health—working toward a world where everyone has access to the information they need to make good decisions about their health. As a collaborative, PHCC draws on the expertise, insights, and on-the-ground knowledge of its partner network and public health leaders. Four Organizing Partners steer the collaborative: CDC Foundation, the de Beaumont Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and Trust for America’s Health.
The Worcester Community Action Council helps people move towards economic stability through programs and advocacy within the Worcester community. Community members can fill out the linked form to see which program would best fit their needs.
If there is a child that you believe is at risk but you aren't sure who to call or if it qualifies for reporting, call the Child at Risk Hotline at 800 792 5200. No specific patient information is required order to receive an answer about the best action to take. The following are area specific offices that can be called during business hours.
Worcester East 508 793 8000
Worcester West 508 929 2000
Whitinsville 508 929 1000
Leominster 978 535 3600
Haitian Hub All updates for the Haitain Task force including meeting times, minutes, and zoom links ot upcoming meetings are posted in the Hub.
Each week at the start of Grand Rounds, we introduce community resources that are relevant to the topic being presented. We'll store the presentation slides with links and notes on the UMass Chan FMCH library guide page for easy access. Many thanks to Andrew Haggerty and our whole trusted librarian team for helping us keep so many of our resources up to date. Topics include:
1/2/24: Free STD testing available at AIDS Project Worcester and Planned Parenthood
The Congressional District Health Dashboard, developed by the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is now live! The Dashboard will equip users with first-of-its-kind data on health and the conditions that affect health in every congressional district across the country. This new Dashboard site builds on the experience creating and managing the City Health Dashboard and provides important data on health and equity, but now calculated to the congressional district level.
Worcester Regional Research Bureau almanac of facts and figures about the city of Worcester, reports and resources. Link
Worcester Community Health Improvement Plan/ Community Health Assessment provide access to recent information about our local public health planning processes and community-identified priorities: http://healthycentralma.com/
Boston Area Research Initiative’s Boston Data Portal includes interactive mapping features: Link
MA Public Health Association: https://mapublichealth.org/ is a great source of info about advocacy in our state.
MA Environmental Public Health Toolkit with tracking data: https://matracking.ehs.state.ma.us/
The Kaiser Family Foundation has an interactive tool for state reports on health coverage, access, and costs. Link
Centers for Disease Control: Data and Statistics by topic and with links to tools and other resources: Link
US Preventive Health Task Force Recommendations: enter facts about your population of interest to identify elevated risks, recommendations and relevant screening forms: Link
Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility searchable neighborhood-level data, reports, and articles. Link
US Census Bureau Data: Link
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Public Use Data Files: Link
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Disability & Health: Link
CHNA.org / Community Commons: Link
Data.gov: Link
Emory University: Link
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Databook: Link
Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU): Link
Partners in Information Access for Public Health Workforce: Link
Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM): Link
Tulane University: Link
University of California San Francisco (UCSF): Link
University of Rochester Edward G Minder Library: Link
US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Link
US National Library of Medicine: Link
National Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT): Link
County Health Rankings: Link
Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI): Link
MassCHIP Community Health Profiles: MassCHIP: Link
Office of Population Health: Link
(Archived) Office of Data Management and Outcomes Assessment: Link
Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS): Link
United States Census Bureau’s FactFinder is an easy way to get lots of data by zip code, city, state, etc. Website Retired in 2020: Link
Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) Data Navigator: Link
National polling data on public opinion regarding routine childhood vaccinations.
The Center for Food Equity has just released the 2023 Worcester Community Food Assessment, highlighting strengths and areas for growth in Worcester food access. They conducted an in-depth survey in collaboration with the Worcester County Food Bank, the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, and the Prevention Research Center at Umass Chan Medical School, to learn from the lived experience of Worcester Residents when it comes to food security.
For recently published research articles in Psychiatry and Psychology, visit UMass's Psychiatry Information in Brief, which boasts over 200 research articles and authored documents about mental health.
Guiding Principles for Civic Advocacy by Medical Students and Prospective Applicants, AAMC 2020
This document was created by the Group on Student Affairs and is intended to aid both leaners and institutions in considering how to engage in and support student advocacy to eliminate police brutality and systemic racism and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. All content reflects the views of the Group on Student Affairs and does not reflect the official position or policy of the Association of American Medical Colleges unless clearly specified.
AAMC Principles of Trustworthiness. The AAMC Principles of Trustworthiness are a framework and tools for organizations working to become trustworthy partners to their communities. The principles include:
The community is already educated; that’s why it doesn’t trust you.
You are not the only experts.
Without action, your organizational pledge is only performance.
An office of community engagement is insufficient.
It doesn’t start or end with a community advisory board.
Diversity is more than skin deep.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) works with policymakers and other leaders to advance policy priorities that strengthen the nation’s health and well-being. Through policies that affect health care delivery, research, education, health equity, and more, the federal government is a key partner in sustaining the vitality of the nation’s academic medicine ecosystem, which is essential to improving the health of all.
UMass Chan Public Health and Community Advocacy FB Group
Sign up here to share upcoming local and online events relevant to public health and community advocacy.
NCMLP & ACU Partnership to Increase Access to Justice and Health Equity
The National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership (NCMLP) and Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) have formed a new partnership that aims to shift the culture of health by helping all ACU members use medical-legal partnership (MLP) to improve health equity, increase access to justice, and strengthen the health care workforce.
Community Legal Aid of Central MA located on 515 Main Street, 3rd Floor
Community Health and Wellbeing Organizations
Worcester Resources
AIDS Project Worcester (APW) Provides support to those living with HIV/AIDS in the Worcester Community. Those also provide a plethora of other services, including distributions of clean needles and Narcan, a food bank open Tuesdays from 8-4, and testing services for any drug sample as small as a grain of rice.
The Village Worcester is an Afrocentric community center located in Main South that connects BIPOC groups working in racial, learning and creativity. Visit their website to see their event calendar, contact information and social media.
North County Resources
Central Mass Agency on Aging 508-852-1458 provides support and information on health aging.
Community Healthcare Resources
Ronald McDonald Care Mobile - The UMass Memorial Health Ronald McDonald Care Mobile delivers preventative dental care and medical services to socioeconomically disadvantaged, undocumented and uninsured children and their families in Worcester counties. Services are provided to 28 Worcester public and charter schools, as well as nine neighborhood sites in the city. Interpreter services for over 100 languages are available to provide health information free of charge. Use the link above for more information and the 2024 schedule.
Toolkits and Webinars
The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative (MHAC) developed an Inclusive Communities Toolkit to help communities engaged in the age- and dementia-friendly movement, centering principles of access, equity, and inclusion in their work. Includes summary stats, and healthy aging "crosswalk" tools based on 8 age- and dementia-friendly domains
When and How to Respond to Public Health Misinformation and a variety of other webinars.
Collaboratory Community Engagement Database - Please consider adding your community-engaged activities to our database to help us measure impact https://he.cecollaboratory.com/umms. Groups are encouraged to assign 1 student to list their community-engaged activity in Collaboratory, the new software for tracking the impact of community-engaged activities at UMass Chan Medical School.
To learn how to use this software and find a step-by-step document for listing an activity.
For a general overview and steps on using Collaboratory: Interactive Learning Module
Community Health Programs
Summer EBT information: A new program for low-income families with school aged children to help buy food when schools are closed for the summer. Summer EBT will be put on EBT cards for most students on July 25th. Most students do not need to apply for Summer EBT, but those who do need to apply will receive funds based on when they do. For more information or questions, visit mass.gov/summerebt or call 855-425-8770
Summer EBT flyers: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/summer-ebt-outreach-materials#summer-ebt-flyer-
Restaurant Meals Program: https://www.mass.gov/massachusetts-snap-restaurant-meals-program-rmp
Outreach flyer in multiple languages: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/protect-your-ebt-benefits-outreach-materials
How to report benefit theft: https://www.mass.gov/how-to/report-stolen-benefits-to-dta
Safe Swim Tips: curated by Matthew Morrow
The Gold Humanism Honor Society is collecting examples of humanism in medicine throughout the curriculum. If you would like to have the opportunity to share and publish your work on this reflection through social media, our blogs, or other forums. This is optional in addition to the submission for credit for the PCHC clerkship: Link (listed Fall 2022)