Reaching the Community

Children's Health Initiative (CHI) partners continue to work extremely
hard to reach the uninsured children in Santa Clara County with family
income at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. The success
of CHI is primarily due to the dedication and work of the Certified
Application Assistors (CAAs) and Eligibility Workers who are
responsible for reaching community members and providing application assistance.

Bilingual Certified Application Assistors (CAAs) are deployed at
strategic sites throughout the county (such as at schools, health
centers, and community-based organizations) that have established
trusting relationships with low-income, uninsured, and immigrant
populations. Significantly, County's Social Services Agency has
expanded the Eligibility Workers' roles and redesigned the intake
process to include application assistance for Medi-Cal, Healthy
Families, and Healthy Kids. This innovative systemic change provides
a significant increase in CHI staff resources and application assistance
sites. Education, marketing and outreach methods continue to
change and evolve based on valuable lessons learned during the
implementation of CHI. Below are some of the strategies employed
to reach the community members since the inception of CHI on
January 2001.

1. Site Staff Education

2. CHI Outreach Methods

3. Lessons Learned

4. Current CHI Certified Application Assistor Sites