Friday, March 1, 2024 | 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

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TALK TITLE:

"Student Resource Navigators: Leveraging Cornell and the CCE System to Integrate Clinical and Social Care in Tompkins County"

TALK ABSTRACT:

This talk will explore the potential of the Extension system to be a leader and key partner in cross-sector health equity efforts across New York State. We will begin with a short, high-level discussion of opportunities for faculty based on the structure and key advantages of New York State’s Extension system. We then show how the Student Resource Navigator Program, a Tompkins County health and social care integration intervention, illustrates an example of these themes in practice.

The pilot Student Resource Navigator Program employs pre-health Cornell undergraduates to reach out to patients of Tompkins County primary care partners and facilitate their connection to resources that can help meet their health-related social needs. We will provide an overview of the program background, workflow, and lessons learned during the pilot phase. We will also discuss opportunities we see to develop a suite of related programs and collaborations where faculty and community partners work together to advance health equity through the integration of health and social care.

SPEAKER(S):

Chris Kai-Jones, PhD, LMSW, oversees health and nutrition programming at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County. He is also a practicing psychotherapist, and a Cook House Fellow at Cornell University. Chris’ work with Cooperative Extension is focused on integrating community-based projects to more effectively influence the social determinants of health. He is also highly motivated to improve the links between faculty and community-based initiatives in the local and statewide cooperative system.

Grace Parker Zielinski, Ed.M., serves as Community Health Coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County and Visiting Lecturer at Cornell’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. Her work is focused primarily on cross-sector collaborations to improve access to resources addressing health-related social needs. She led the development of the Student Resource Navigator Program by engaging Community Advisors to adapt evidence-based models to local needs, developing partnerships to support implementation, developing training curricula, and supervising student teams. Her approach has been shaped by her frontline work with marginalized communities through Head Start and adult basic literacy and ESOL programs.