OPINION AND MAPS: Proposal for Community Health Corps

Mapping the New Politics of Care

COVID-19 affects our communities differently. Health and social vulnerabilities that predate the pandemic have fueled uneven effects across the United States. Unless we address the long-standing inequalities embedded in the social and political landscape of the country along with the immediate needs produced by the pandemic, we will come out of the current crisis just as vulnerable as when this all began.

We propose a New Deal for Public Health, with a Community Health Corps of one million community health workers (CHWs), to attend to the health needs of America's residents. CHWs will help people get tested for COVID-19 and trace their contacts, but they will have to tackle more than that in the short term. They will have to take on the role of social workers, navigating the web of services that address the social and economic burdens of social distancing and isolation; they will also have to deliver food and medicine, supply rent assistance and protection from eviction, and offer child care and elder care.

Beyond delivering comprehensive and holistic health-care services, CHWs are unique in their role as advocates of the people whom they serve. It is in this capacity as community members that CHWs are empowered to redress the health disparities that have multiplied for generations.

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