The Refugee Community Health Partnership Program aims to improve refugees' access to healthcare and self-sufficiency. It operates Quick Help sessions twice weekly where volunteers help refugees with issues like healthcare, education, and legal matters. The program also provides health orientations for new refugees, collaborates with partners on health events, and creates health education videos and presentations. However, it faces limitations like inconsistent volunteer participation and an inability to serve all refugee groups due to a lack of interpreters for all languages.

1. Refugee Community Health Partnership Program
Graduate Intern: Laya Lakkaraju
Co-mentors: Susan Kukuk and Edmund Russell Altone
Mission: To serve as a catalyst that engages refugees and
community partners in ways that enable refugees to overcome
language barriers to health care access, improve their health
and well-being, and acquire skills and knowledge to achieve
self-efficacy.
Population: Refugees resettled in the Capital Region
Stakeholders:
Issues:
Barriers to Healthcare Access
• Limited English proficiency
• Unfamiliarity with and complexity of the U.S. health
care system
• Scarcity of health providers offering language
interpretation
• Inaccessible health services due to transportation
issues
• Lack of cultural competence by some health care
providers
• Unfamiliarity with the concept of preventive care
• Specific traditional health beliefs and cultural
attitudes
Values of the Program:
Components of the Program:
1. Quick Help sessions – Held twice weekly for walk-in
refugee clients at which volunteers, including interpreters
from refugee communities, help individuals and families
resolve a wide range of issues, including those related to
health care, education, public benefits, employment,
personal finance, legal matters, etc. More than 300 client
encounters during first quarter of 2016.
2. Integrating health-promoting features to Quick Help
sessions – e.g. collaboration with University at Albany School
of Social Welfare in which RCHPP arranges appointments
with certified health insurance Navigators and provides
volunteer interpreter support.
3. Health Orientation for new incoming refugees in
partnership with USCRI.
4. Special collaborations with community partners – e.g. flu
vaccine PODs, healthy nutrition classes, where to catch
healthy fish event, fire safety event.
RCHPP
Trinity Alliance
External
Stakeholders
• Health care
providers
• Health insurance
plans
• State and county
health
departments
Internal
Stakeholders
• Community
Members &
Leaders
• Volunteers
• Trinity Staff
Right to Health
Inspired
Community Health
Shared LearningSelf Efficacy
Mutual Respect
Cultural
Appreciation
Inclusive
Participation
Social Justice
Student Role:
1. Program Coordination
• Conducting volunteer recruitment
• Organizing twice-weekly Quick Help sessions
• Creating resources to help volunteers guide refugees
in choosing accessible health providers that offer
language interpretation
• Starting grant application process to fund
internships, language interpretation, etc.
2. Health education
• Creating videos with voiceovers on how to get to
local health provider locations in various languages
• Presenting health orientations to newly arrived
refugees at USCRI refugee resettlement agency
• Organizing collaboration with Planned Parenthood
entitled What Every Young Woman Needs to Know –
a sexual health program for young women ages 12 –
21.
Limitations of the Program:
• Volunteer retention /consistency of participation
• Not all refugee populations participating mainly due
to lack of volunteer interpreters for languages other
than Karen and Burmese
• Aim is to provide interpretation and include all
refugee groups.