City of Detroit issued the following announcement on Aug. 12.
Mayor Mike Duggan today announced a new initiative he says will revolutionize how the city can change quality of life for its most vulnerable residents. For many Detroiters, the current pandemic has exacerbated previously existing issues related to everything from food, housing and utility insecurity to behavioral health support, job training and employment.
For example, a third or more of Detroiters do not own a car or have access to the Internet, isolating them to a large degree from programs that can help them find employment, address their housing needs, access family health services or receive food or water assistance.
To address this in an unprecedented way, the new Community Health Corps, which will be funded initially with $3.5 million in federal CARES Act funds, will send community health workers and peer counselors door-to-door across the city to identify families in need of any of the multitude of these and other services and support programs to improve their economic mobility, health and quality of life.
“What we have been finding is that too many of our residents in need of the available services and programs offered simply aren’t aware of them and don’t know where to go for help,” said Mayor Duggan. “The CHC team will help identify the needs within each household and connect family members with the appropriate programs. They also will assess the talent and skills of each family member for referral to Detroit at Work training and employment programs.”
Once City Council approves the plan, the City of Detroit through Detroit at Work will begin hiring its initial team of approximately (20) staff, which the Mayor expects will start hitting the streets in October. The CHC would later scale up to serve a much larger number of households, once it is able to measure and demonstrate its effectiveness.
Original source can be found here.
Source: City of Detroit
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