Health Education Associates, Brooklyn Neighborhood Health

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is a world-renowned agency with a long tradition of protecting and promoting health in the nation’s most culturally and linguistically diverse city. Our 7,000-plus team members bring an extraordinary array of languages, cultures, and experiences to bear on the work of public health. The Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness (CHECW) seeks to eliminate racial and other inequities resulting in premature mortality. With an unwavering grounding in history and structural analysis, CHECW works to increase visibility of the harm perpetuated by centuries of racist, socially unjust policy while pushing towards redress for the most affected NYC communities. CHECW addresses inequity across community and health-care systems in partnership with community, faith-based, and health-care organizations. CHECW’s work focuses on the social determinants of health, including environmental and commercial determinants, and addresses both upstream and downstream factors to improve the health and well-being of New Yorkers. CHECW employs anti-racism approaches to reduce and minimize unfair exposure to risk and to advance health justice and social change.

One important area of focus is perinatal health, especially eliminating the inequities in maternal and child health outcomes that currently exist in New York City. CHECW’s birth equity work is centered in three Bureaus of Neighborhood Health (one each in the Bronx, Harlem, and Brooklyn), which partner with community stakeholders to address health inequities and the drivers of premature mortality. Poor maternal and infant outcomes result from longstanding structural inequality. among other factors. Therefore, the Bureaus of Neighborhood Health (BNH) provide tangible resources, practical support, community capacity-building, and workforce development; partner with health systems to improve the provision of care; and inform policy through broad-based coalitions.

Each BNH hosts a Family Wellness Suite, which supports the portfolio of perinatal health programs within that bureau. Physically, the Family Wellness Suites (FWS) are safe, welcoming, and supportive spaces where families and individuals can connect to community resources and city services, such as workshops to lower the risk of chronic diseases and promote health and well-being, fitness activities, classes to support fathers, referrals to social-service and medical providers, referrals to doulas (childbirth-support professionals), and other programs to support a healthy pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn. The FWS’s support the work of the Citywide Doula Initiative, Healthy Start Brooklyn, Breastfeeding/Lactation Equity Initiative, and other grant-funded perinatal health programs and initiatives.
Each Health Education Associate will be based in one of CHECW’s Bureaus of Neighborhood Health and will report to the Family Wellness Suite Coordinator at that site.

• In consultation with the Family Wellness Suite Coordinator and other perinatal health program leadership, develop a comprehensive health education portfolio for the FWS that incorporates the goals and objectives of the Citywide Doula Initiative, Healthy Start Brooklyn, Creating Breastfeeding Friendly Communities, and other BNH programs that address the social determinants of perinatal health;
• Tailor workshops and classes to meet the language and other cultural needs of community residents, educating residents on maternal health subject matter;
• Coordinates the “Virtual Family Wellness Suite” portfolio of programs and services for expectant and new families who are not able to attend programs in person;
  Elicits participation from community residents being served, with the objective of residents becoming group facilitators and trainers;
• Conduct outreach and recruitment; monitor electronic registration platforms, email, telephone, and online enrollment forms; send out Zoom links, handouts, and other resources;
• Responsible for maintaining records, and tracking client participation in workshops and trainings being offered;
• Compile and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on classes and activities; make recommendations for improving service and increasing attendance;
• Develop or expand capacity-building opportunities for BNH staff and neighborhood stakeholders to support preconception, pregnant, and parenting clients through the identification and/or facilitation of education sessions/workshops, including the adoption of breastfeeding/lactation-friendly policies and practices;
• Collaborate in the development of health-promotion events (community baby showers, Meet the Doula events, etc.) and celebrations (Black Maternal Health Week, National Breastfeeding Month, etc.);
• Draft and distribute the monthly FWS-CDI calendar of virtual and in-person classes and events, in conjunction with BNH team;
• Other duties as assigned.

1. High school graduation or equivalent and three years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to duties described above; or
2. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to “1” above.