Description
Identifying and remedying barriers to accessing services has been at the forefront of Public Health. Transportation, internet access, and knowledge or comfort with navigating service systems are huge barriers for people in accessing needed services. Chatham County is a rural county that exaserbates many of these issues - primarily lack of transportation, living far from resources, and lack of broadband internet. The Chatham Community Resource Hub is a program of the Chatham Health Alliance that aims to overcome these barriers by bringing resources to the community. The Chatham County Public Health Department partners with the Alliance, along with many other county agencies, to deliver this program. The Hub is a mobile, co-located effort of many Chatham Health Alliance partner agencies. The Hub has events all over Chatham County to safety provide community members with free resources. Resources you will find at a Hub event include: meals from the Interfaith Food Shuttle, masks to protect our community during the pandemic, medication lock boxes to safely store medications in your home, medication disposal kits to dispose of unwanted medications, COVID-19 vaccines and information, car seat inspections and installation to keep your children safe, 4-H learning kits for fun and educational activities, and more. The Resource Hub will be expanding to bulster behavioral health and sustance misuse resources such as naloxone kit distribution and education on available treatment options in the county. The Hub utilizes hot spots to help community members access needed services online, and will be partnering with the NCCARE360 pilot project to provide needed referrals for services.