Rural Health Projects has been working Enid area for more than 30 years | Progress






Rural Health Projects hosting Virtual 30 race and fundraiser




ENID, Okla. — Rural Wellbeing Tasks commenced in 1989 with the aim of strengthening accessibility to and good quality of well being care solutions in rural Oklahoma. Thirty decades later on, that aim remains section of its diversified mission assertion.

This 12 months marks the 30th anniversary of RHP becoming a 501©3 firm, reported Government Director Allison Seigars. The nonprofit started as an Location Wellbeing Education and learning Centre (AHEC).

“There are AHECs in every single condition,” Seigars mentioned, “but most people today have never ever read of them. Their role is to recruit, educate and keep overall health pros for underserved areas, like rural communities. They do some neighborhood instruction, but which is not their most important position.”

Rural Wellbeing Tasks is now an umbrella group for a assortment of grants and contracts. The AHEC, for example, is really an Oklahoma Point out University plan that contracts with RHP for administration. At the moment, the programs contain an outreach to Marshall Islanders in Enid’s rural inhabitants, the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust’s (TSET) Balanced Dwelling Program, HIV treatment, applications for seniors and, the key emphasis for now, a COVID-19 Vaccine Assurance plan that aims to decrease vaccine hesitancy in 11 Northwest Oklahoma counties.

A crew of somewhere around 15 complete-time staff members will work to satisfy a myriad of demands with obtainable cash. Seigars reported the bulk of RHP’s funding comes through HRSA grants — funding awarded by the Overall health Resources & Solutions Administration, a federal place of work. The business also has developed plans working with the TSET Balanced Residing 2. grant plan, the intention of which is “to improve wellbeing by blocking or decreasing tobacco use, improving diet and raising bodily action in an effort and hard work to lessen premature death in Oklahoma.”






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“We did a community needs evaluation before building the application,” Seigars stated. “The grant is helping us generate a healthier ecosystem for the people today who reside in Garfield County.”

RHP does offer health and fitness education to rural Oklahomans, but the the vast majority of its do the job is not with the normal public — it is programmatic and advocatory. Staff also aggregate data about methods associated to social determinants of health: work, transportation, foodstuff, clear drinking water, safe housing, etcetera. They have obtain to a My Care system that can help purchasers investigation out there assets.

In its function as the contracting administrator of the Rural Overall health Affiliation of Oklahoma, RHP also organizes the yearly Oklahoma Rural Well being Convention — all are welcome to show up at — in the tumble of every single calendar year. Seigars claimed a date has not been chosen for the 2022 convention.