NYC neighborhood health corps - over a year after covid-19 arrived in new york city (NYC), the well-documented disparate impact of the pandemic on communities of color remains unchanged

According to data from new york city department of health and mental hygiene (dohmh), black and latino new yorkers are still twice as likely as white new yorkers to be hospitalized and DIE from coronavirus (nycdoh, 2021). Dohmh has built on its deep history of neighborhood-based work and community partnerships, often executed in partnership with its bona fide fiduciary agent, the fund for public health in new york city (fphnyc), to launch a hyperlocal pandemic response strategy focused on closing these equity gaps. This community engagement strategy is grounded in an overarching focus on racial and social justice to ensure that the covid response and vaccination campaign is equitable, informed by community partners, and responsive to the needs of marginalized new yorkers. Fphnyc/dohmh plans to formalize this strategy though the development of a neighborhood health corps (NHC) of community health workers, in partnership with community-based organizations. The NHC will use a multipronged community engagement strategy to increase access to covid-19 prevention, treatment, and vaccination services; address covid-19 risk factors including chronic disease, social determinants of health and racism; and to build collective action to address racial disparities and resource needs. These efforts will be focused in 9-10 neighborhoods selected for high covid-19 death rates, low covid-19 vaccination rates, and high scores on a combined social and health-based metric assessing burden of chronic disease, unmet social needs, and covid-19 wave 1 impact. The outcomes of interest include improved fphnyc/dohmh capacity and services to prevent and control covid-19 transmission among populations at higher risk and that are marginalized, including racial and ethnic minority groups, and reduced covid-19-related health disparities. In all, the NHC will provide a sustainable, organized backbone of CBO partnerships that can address health disparities at the neighborhood level, better integrate disease-specific programs into the community, and jumpstart responses to future crises.