Welcome back to iron sharpens iron. I'm your host. And well, I'm your co host I should say because I have I'm here with one of my co hosts as my only co host, De'Wayne Drummond. And we're here today and we're talking to who are we talking to?
My name is Lizette Lewis, NKCDC CDC, which is New Kensington Community Development Corporation.
And what do you do there?
I'm actually the project manager for the community health worker training program, where oversee and manage community health workers from the community, we actually have a training programs like a three tier workforce development program, where we actually recruit residents from the community. And we actually partner with Jefferson Health Institute, and also HMA, which is Health Management Associates. And we just pull residents in from the community to have a peer to peer training that actually get them to understand how to access resources, so they can actually take it back to the community, to their peers, their family members, and either use the services for themselves
and you say this is health is health care. Is
is like health, like in the hospital, but not often. Well, okay. Behavioral Health, okay, we actually a program is geared to multi generational factors and needs, whether it is reentry, whether it's poverty, whether it's school, educational workforce development, health wise, you know, some things of jazz just actually happen or occur over a generation. So if they have a poor diet, diabetes may run in a family, or hypertension may run in a family. So we try to help them to get the resources that they need to get a better understanding of why this is impacting their life. So we can create change to promote health and wellness within the community within themselves. Okay, cool. Cool.
I hear us talking about health a whole lot. How does Health Impact affordable housing
that is so connected, it is really connected? Because when someone is living in a home, and they say, Okay, I have this amount of money? Do I either feed my children? Do I pay my rent? Do I pay my utilities? What do I do, and all those stressors cause a lot of internal pressure, stress, it can make your blood pressure go up, a lot of a lot of distress actually triggers your system to create more steroids. So yeah, so your body the adrenaline, it either gives you that rush to either do what I have to do, flee or just freeze. So a lot of people they actually don't realize how their body is in a constant state of stress. Because I have this bill on my mind, I have to go to work. I have my who's gonna watch my children, how am I gonna get this done? My car is down, how am I gonna get to work. So that's how to community health workers, they actually come in and provide them the resources, oh, you may need a transplant to get the work. So let me help you really alleviate some of these stressors. So when he leaves, he ate some of the stressors, their tension levels begin to decrease. So they begin to repair and heal on the inside, which can impact them on the outside. So the stressors actually relate to their housing and all the other stresses that are impacting within the community. So what's the ongoing vicious cycle? Ongoing vicious cycle that comes right back around? The
what kind of success stories do you have?
Oh, my, oh, my. My first cohort was in 2019. And they, the first cohort that I had come in and they were actually block captains leaders. They actually work with bails bondsman. They actually work with addiction, behavioral health challenges. And I had to my CHWs, they went out, we go door to door knock, and they actually do it the old fashioned way. They're not emailing you and faxing you and doing all that stuff. Social media, they do do it. But they went door to door to check on a residence in the community. And to my community health workers, they actually knocked on this one door. And the individual said, you know, I just he was paralyzed from a truck accident. And he lost all his services. He lost his social security. He lost his home care. He lost his income. The two community health workers, they went in, got them back the Social Security, got back his homecare services and got his income back. And they actually wrote a newsletter about how to impact the social community health Chris actually was able to help this one client and that was just one client. Okay, they have many
success stories. Wow. So you guys are making a difference making a difference. And that's what that's what counts making a positive difference in the community. And that's why we're here on top and John, we want to know what's going on and how you did it. And then not only do we want you to know how who did it, he wants you to teach somebody else to do the same
on how to teach anybody I don't can take it to the grave with me can I never saw new hall. You know, the family members used to get that before. So what does the turn iron sharpens iron means to you? To me? Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. In the self within itself is a powerful tool is implemented. But when it rains, it gets rusted. And when it's sun out, it can begin to hold heat. So sometimes it may bolt a little bit, but it needs to be re cultivated. So when you have another piece of armor that can come up and rub against it. You better be able to help it to be moldable again, and when the arm begins to rub against each other, it sharpens each other. So not just one piece of iron is getting sharpened, the others also getting sharpened. So when they come together, you have a powerful tool that can take down any disparity that's coming up against
you. Thank you so much. You just gave a proper to the proper. Thank you so much. God bless you.
God bless you.
Thank you so much for coming in again. Who are we talking to?
Was that Luis from in KCC Kensington Community Development Corporation.