10/21/24
Dear CHW community,
It is with a grateful heart that I inform you I am resigning as Director of the Community Health Worker Association of Rhode Island. Throughout these past 7 years, I have been deeply inspired by community health workers’ compassion, professional dedication, and reverence for human dignity. You have shifted my own professional compass so much that I have taken a position as a therapist at Newport Mental Health. This will allow me to work close to home and serve my neighbors needing behavioral health support on Aquidneck Island.
CHWARI has a lot to be proud of. Building on the grassroots sown in 2009, the association has grown to include over 1800 subscribers to our newsletter and has supported the professional development of several hundred CHWs through training, certification, and leadership opportunities. Through our parent entity, the Institute for Education in Healthcare at Rhode Island College, we have attracted federal and state monies, CHWs from diverse workplaces, and workforce allies across the state to help fortify this invaluable workforce. I wish you all – CHWs and Allies – the best as you forge financial sustainability of this role, grounding CHW work in local community strengths and cultures, and being guided by CHWs’ lived expertise in surmounting barriers and thriving.
Please be assured CHWARI will continue its rich communications outreach, roll out professional development opportunities and connect CHWs with policy actions, job announcements and certification guidance. To that end, please keep sending your newsletter items to Laura Blackwell. Tonya Glantz, Executive Director of IEH, supporting CHWARI since its revival in 2017, will be fielding general inquiries while CHWARI seeks its new leader. In upcoming months, CHWARI will form its new Advisory Council to take the association forward, guided by authentic CHW voices.
Thank you for sharing with me yourselves, your stories, your expertise and your passion for serving the people in this state.
Take care,
Sarah Lawrence