Notes from community outreach

Yesterday I did an outreach event for about 25 participants in the STRIVE- New Haven program to let them know about different health insurance options. STRIVE does “employability skills training workshops” for residents of greater New Haven to help them find and keep jobs. STRIVE is a comprehensive job and life-training program with a great record of success.

The purpose of these outreach events is to go out into the community and to provide information and answer questions about health insurance coverage and where to find health insurance in Connecticut. Some of the health insurance options I talked about were individual insurance, employer-based insurance, COBRA, Charter Oak, HUSKY, SAGA, and free bed funds from hospitals. I was impressed by the STRIVE program as well as the professionalism of the participants, who demonstrated what they were learning in the program. They were interested in the different topics and asked questions to get more information (each person would stand and introduce themselves when they had a question). Participants asked questions about HUSKY, community health centers, and SAGA Medical (including spenddowns). All of the men wore ties with dress shirts and pants and the women wore clothes suitable for the workplace. I handed out a lot of our tip sheets, which are a great resource to provide more information about the topics I was covering. The audience was receptive and engaged; it was definitely a successful outreach event.
Jen Ramirez