In May, the Community Ambassador Real Equality (CARE) Team was accepted to present at the National Rural Health Association’s Annual Rural Health Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Members of the CARE planning team, Schell McCall and Hannah Robinson of PATH, LaCosta Tipton and Amber Dillinger of Mountain Community Health Partnership, along with Community Ambassador, Molly Martinez, presented on behalf of the larger CARE Team.
The group gave a 75-minute presentation on how the CARE Team was created during the height of the pandemic to create and share culturally responsive and relevant COVID-19 messaging within the Latino/Hispanic community in Yancey and Mitchell counties. Public health practitioners, medical professionals, and rural health leaders from across the country attended the presentation. Together, the attendees and presenters brainstormed ways the CARE model may be adapted for implementation in other communities.
In addition to sharing CARE’s work with conference attendees, the group was also able to learn about innovative practices for addressing health challenges in rural communities and other information that has informed work locally.
