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The Project is a joint effort of the Harrison
Institute and the Center
for Policy Alternatives (CPA) that supports primary
and preventive health care providers in ways that strengthen
the economic health of the people and communities they
serve. We provide resources and training on the basic
issues facing primary and preventive care providers, develop
viable legislative and market strategies for community-based
providers, and assist providers and activists in implementing
these strategies. Originally funded in late 1994 with
a two-year grant from the Kellogg Foundation, the Project
has been funded for another two years.
The Project has developed a number of policy options,
training programs, and resource documents (see the Harrison
Institute Publications for
a partial list). The Project's efforts include:
- John Pomeranz is supervising three students (Hilary
Kao, Theda Allen Sanders, and LizaYurchak) who are
developing a menu of policy options to encourage partnerships
between community-based health care providers and
managed care organizations. These options range from
coercive regulations to market-driven incentive programs.
The students have completed an outline summarizing
the options and are now drafting analyses and model
language in support of individual options.
- We are working to help develop policy proposals
for an emerging community health worker movement.
Community health advisors are lay people, drawn from
the communities they serve, that provide health education,
outreach, organizing, and other services. Erna Koch
is working with leaders in the community health advisor
world, notably the people who are now conducting a
national community health advisor survey. Erna is
drafting a leadership brief which will summarize the
movement -- describing the concept and types of community
health worker programs, identifying the threats and
opportunities these programs face, and suggesting
possible policy options.
- John Pomeranz and Julianne Chun drafted legislation
recently introduced in Massachusetts that would provide
state funding for a pilot community health advisor
program.
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