Celebrating community health workers, advancing health equity

In 2020, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) made a $100 million commitment over 5 years to Our Race To Health Equity: with the ambition to create a world where the color of your skin is not a determinant of your access to care, quality of care or health outcomes. As part of that work, the company supports community-centered, culturally competent care solutions that connect communities of color to quality healthcare. One of those solutions is Community Health Centers (CHCs) and Community Health Workers (CHWs) that are embedded in the communities in which they work.

Existing healthcare systems in the U.S. often fail to meet people’s fundamental needs and leave many communities behind due to systemic hurdles and lack of trust due to a history of racism and exclusion. For example, African Americans and Hispanic adults are more than twice as likely to report no regular source of care or that the emergency room is their usual source of care.

CHCs and CHWs exist to bridge those trust and practical gaps. They are staffed by community members and located in the heart of neighborhoods. They offer transport and translation support, bring regular check ups to community hubs like churches, connect people to social support services and help them navigate payment and benefits, and care for people whatever their insurance status — serving over 30 million Americans in their neighborhoods every year.

J&J asked NationSwell to help them showcase the incredible work done by CHCs and CHWs around the country, and drive support for community-centered care solutions.

Our approach was to create an informative and personally resonant series of documentary-style short videos that could be consumed online and used by CHCs, CHWs and anyone supporting health equity solutions to show why this solution works. We prioritized connecting to a diverse range of centers and workers that are serving a varied set of communities across the country: rural, urban, suburban, racially and ethnically diverse, and in different geographic regions.

We worked closely with the J&J team, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and the National Association of Community Health Workers (NACHW) to connect us to community hubs. After speaking to 20+ different leaders across the country, we aligned on capturing footage with the centers and workers in New York City, NY, Roanoke and Murfreesboro, NC, San Fernando Valley, CA, and Albuquerque and Santo Domingo Pueblo, NM.

We spent several days with the people on the ground in each of the locations, observing their work and asking them to tell us, through their own personal stories, why CHCs and CHWs matter. We edited this footage into four compelling video stories that explain what CHCs and CHWs do and why they matter, and shine a light on the people behind this transformative solution.

Thanks to all the CHCs and CHWs that were part of the process, for your collaboration and the work you do everyday to support your communities, including: NACHC, NACHW, Project Echo, Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Northeast Valley Health Corporation, Columbia University.