NewVue Works to Create Health Equity

NewVue Communities strives to empower residents through community organizing, small business and homeownership assistance and housing development. And through our work in those programs, we are hoping to make our communities healthier.

NewVue has received a Health Equity Action Lab (HEAL) Grant from NeighborWorks America to create a plan to address health equity in our communities, a goal we believe will improve the overall quality of life for our residents.

Health equity is when everyone has a fair opportunity to achieve their best possible health, regardless of factors such as race, ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geography, and preferred language. Specific examples include access to a quality education, decent-paying jobs, childcare, health care, transportation, infrastructure and especially safe housing.

The lack of health equity across our communities became especially clear during the COVID pandemic when poorer residents were disproportionately impacted. “We learned that many of our poorest neighborhoods had lower vaccination rates than the rest of our region,’’ said NewVue Deputy Director Dolores Thibault-Munoz. “Through this effort, NewVue became more cognizant of the health disparities in our community and dug deeper to understand our community development work within the context of health equity. It’s become clear that to have strong communities, we must have healthy communities.’’

Four senior staff members from NewVue recently attended a three-day training with peer organizations from around the country to help jump start the health equity planning process. They were: Deputy Director Thibault -Munoz, Director of Housing Development Steve Cook, Director of Community Organizing Francisco Ramos and Director of Housing and Financial Services Madeline Mendoza.

“Learning from the experience of others, we are working together as a team to collaborate on a vision for how we can create a Health Equity Plan that will meet the needs of our communities,” Dolores said.

The team members returned from the training full of ideas and inspiration, and hope to share the plan with the community by the end of the year.

The goal is to create a plan that can be duplicated and adjusted for different communities, using our target area of Fitchburg’s North of Main Street neighborhood as the model. “Implementing a health equity action plan will allow us to integrate a vision that assures people are thriving by living healthier, longer, safer and stronger lives,” Dolores said. While the development of an overall health equity plan is a new undertaking for NewVue, it’s an issue we started tackling during the COVID pandemic through vaccination campaigns and the distribution of COVID tests.

Other ways in which health equity is being addressed at NewVue:

• Recently granted administrative oversight and direct delivery of services by the local Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP), which helps prevent, screen, diagnose, and treat childhood lead poisoning.
• Hired a full-time community organizer and CLPPP manager, who is a licensed community health worker.
• Is conducting a survey to assess current barriers to healthcare access in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Fitchburg.