WHY DOES THE ATLANTA AREA NEED COMMUNITY RESOURCE HUBS?

The Atlanta metro region offers many programs and services to address problems like hunger, housing instability, and unemployment, but people who qualify don’t always know about them or have trouble accessing them. To streamline the process of working with disconnected programs and agencies, community resource hubs help residents find services and navigate requirements questions and eligibility challenges. They serve as an important partner to clinics and hospitals that can’t always offer help — and might not be the best place to provide it. Patients don’t always feel comfortable talking to medical providers about non-medical challenges.

HOW DO COMMUNITY RESOURCE HUBS WORK?

Partnering hospitals and clinics connect their patients with community health workers who support high-needs residents with eligibility requirements, appointments, and follow-up tasks. Through building relationships with residents, community health workers can better understand their challenges like hunger, unemployment, and homelessness and help coordinate their care. Community resource hubs are effective because workers get to know where a community is strong, where things are going wrong, and then work with health care systems and community and state agencies to make adjustments that make sense.

COMMUNITY RESOURCE HUBS IMPROVE HEALTH

Community resource hubs promote health care that values every person as an individual and provides people facing challenges with the opportunity to be as healthy as possible.