2016 -- H 8121

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LC005720

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

PROCLAIMING THE MONTH OF APRIL, 2016, AS "COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS

MONTH" IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     Introduced By: Representatives Diaz, Slater, Hull, Bennett, and Barros

     Date Introduced: April 28, 2016

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are professional non-clinicians who

connect and advocate for disenfranchised and medically underserved populations to the health

and social service systems, while making health services more culturally and linguistically

appropriate; and

     WHEREAS, By serving in a unique role, Community Health Workers strive to improve

access to health care, advance health equity and self-sufficiency, and help to eliminate health care

disparities based on race, ethnicity, gender, and class, in underserved communities; and

     WHEREAS, Community Health Workers provide direct services, including informal

counseling and social support, and advocate for individual and community needs; and

     WHEREAS, Workforce diversity is a critical step in achieving health equity given that

communities with high minority population experience a disproportionate burden of poor health,

and increasing the workforce diversity is vital to eliminating health disparities; and

     WHEREAS, The month of April is celebrated as Minority Health Month in order to

recognize that the Community Health Worker workforce has the ability to diversify the health

workforce as many are members of underserved communities in Rhode Island; now, therefore be

it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby recognizes the Community Health Worker workforce as an

apprenticeable profession as has the state's Department of Labor and Training, and the

Department of Health; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That this House hereby proclaims April, 2016, as "Community Health

Workers Month" in the state. We moreover thank Rhode Island's Community Health Workers

(CHWs) for the important contributions they make towards improving the quality of life for the

citizens of Rhode Island; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Dannie Ritchie, MD, MPH, Clinical Assistant

Professor Family Medicine, Brown University.

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