Mariposa Community Health Center Awarded Major Grant

January of 2017 Mariposa Community Health Center submitted a HRSA Rural Network Development Planning Grant application in hopes of receiving the funds to create the Santa Cruz County Elder Wellness Network. Just this month (July 2017) Mariposa was awarded the grant for an approximate $100,000 to be spent throughout a 12-month period. 51% of the grant will be distributed to the major partners in the county.

The partners include the following ten organizations: Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital, Santa Cruz Council on Aging, Rio Rico Home Owners Association, Patagonia Assisted Care Association, Family Health Care Amigos, Nogales Community Food Bank/Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Nogales Community Development Corporation, Southeastern Arizona Area Health Education Center, Rio Rico Fire and Medical District, and the Arizona Prevention Research Center.

The Santa Cruz County Elder Wellness Network is a vertical network consisting of ten partners that represent the health
care, senior services and social services sectors in Santa Cruz County (Arizona), which is a rural community located on the U.S.-México border.

The Network will utilize the Chronic Care Model, which is evidence-based, to integrate care coordination with other services in order to provide more holistic services for older adults. Community Health Workers (CHWs), which are identified as a best
practice to improve population health, will be utilized to help conduct the Network’s needs assessment, and CHWs will be promoted as a linguistically appropriate and culturally intelligent workforce for the senior services system.