AmeriCorps grants $200,000 to health equity efforts in Winston-Salem

During a visit to Winston-Salem, AmeriCorps national leadership granted Wake Forest University just over $200,000 in funds to support the school’s Public Health AmeriCorps members. 

The federal grant will go toward supporting the organization’s efforts in the area and its work providing health care assistance to underserved communities. 

Rafaela Capelate De Oliveira helps give a tour of the Community Care Center, a free health care clinic in Winston-Salem. She's a public health corps member who has spent three years working to facilitate interactions between patients and providers. 

The center, which serves more than 2,000 annually, caters to a mostly Latino population. 

Capelate De Oliveira explains to her audience why she’s in the business of helping others. 

"So I’ve helped with all the three clinics, the dental, the optometry and also the gynecologist — I think that is very essential," Capelate De Oliveira said. "I really like the work we do here. As someone who has immigrated from Brazil to the U.S., the first years I was here I didn’t have health insurance so like, I understand what it is to have that struggle."

Capelate De Oliveira spends much of her time interpreting for patients. In addition, she schedules appointments, writes grants and most recently is training to use The Pharmacy Connection, a software that helps connect patients to affordable pharmaceuticals.

 
Michael D. Smith, the chief executive officer of AmeriCorps listens to her speak during the tour. 

He is in town to visit the center and see how AmeriCorps dollars are being put to use for the relatively new public health component of the organization, which was established in 2021 by the Biden administration.

"We’re bringing new AmeriCorps members in that are able to tackle public health issues, urgent public health issues in communities," Smith said. "It ranges, on a variety of issues from substance abuse to food and nutrition to community health workers and navigation."

According to AmeriCorps, 90 Corps members are serving in long-term recovery operations in areas hit by Helene across the Southeast.

In total, there are 214 Public Health AmeriCorps members serving in North Carolina and more than 5,000 have served nationwide since 2021. 

Thirty-two are stationed in Western North Carolina and an additional 55 Corps members who work for the federal emergency response agency have been sent into the state. 

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X and Instagram: @santi8a98