The Erie Niagara Area Health Education Center (AHEC)

The Western NY Neighborhood Health Coalition Legacy Project initiated a cultural health broker program by training community leaders to engage community members in conversations around health issues. They developed and implemented a training program for 15 individuals to become Neighborhood Health Talkers. The Health Talkers then organized 50 conversations around diabetes throughout the community reaching over 700 individuals. The Western NY Neighborhood Health Coalition is made up of community block club and tenant council leaders in the greater Buffalo area that work together to engage and empower neighborhoods to have a greater involvement in their own health care. The coalition was formed by the Erie Niagara Area Health Education Center whose mission is to enhance the quality of and access to health care, improve health care outcomes and address health workforce needs of medically underserved communities and populations in Erie and Niagara counties by establishing partnerships between the institutions that train and hire health professionals and the communities that need them most.