3 From our CBOAs I reflect on the past fiscal year, I am proud of the collective progress Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics (GRH) and our community partners have made toward meeting the needs of our community. Resiliency, strength and hope come to mind as key terms describing this forward progress. We have shown resiliency in our pursuits to create the Eastern Oregon Community Resource Network (EOCRN). Simply put, the EOCRN is an online network that matches needs with resources in Union, Baker and Wallowa counties. The EOCRN is unique in that it has a backbone organization, Building Healthy Families in Wallowa County, coordinating this effort. We have shown strength in building our communities by meeting social determinants of health, including health care access and quality, social and community context, and neighborhood and built environments. A few examples include GRH’s robust financial assistance program to allow those who are uninsured and/or underinsured to receive necessary health care; a community grant to the Northeast Oregon Regional Food Bank to purchase a freezer/cooler to help decrease food insecurity; a community grant for the Historic Union Community Hall to create a community center in Union, Oregon, for gathering, education and socialization with others; and the creation of a behavioral health clinic with 13 providers. I am encouraged by hope for the future. GRH and our community have changed as a result of the pandemic. The pandemic highlighted both the strength of our work and the need for us to continue our efforts. I want to thank our staff and community partners for persevering during these crazy times. In the words of Dr. Seuss, “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” We would not be able to do this work without you. —Wendy Roberts Continued support of the CHARMS program Our CHARMS (Children and Recovering Mothers) program continues to thrive. The mission of CHARMS is to have healthy birth outcomes, which are more likely when women obtain prenatal care early during pregnancy, consistently complete their prenatal visits, receive medication-assisted therapy and participate in substance use counseling. CHARMS provides a recovery pathway that often begins in our Women’s and Children’s Clinic, in conjunction with our Family Birthing Center, while collaborating with the Center for Human Development, Babies First, addiction services and mental health services, Grande Ronde Recovery, GRH Behavioral Health, Oregon Department of Human Services, local law enforcement, Next Step Pregnancy, Community Connections of Northeast Oregon, Shelter from the Storm, Northeast Oregon Housing Authority, Narcotics Anonymous, Eastern Oregon Alcoholism Foundation, the Baker House Treatment Center, Healthy Families, Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization Local Community Advisory Council, and the Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Initiative. At program completion, the goal of a CHARMS participant is to maintain sobriety throughout pregnancy, deliver a healthy baby, engage in a designated treatment plan, and discharge with their baby to a safe and healthy home environment. Making a difference— one family at a time For more than a decade, a small group from our local Department of Human Services (DHS) managed an anonymous email group led by Chris Evans, a Community Development Coordinator for the district that serves Union, Baker and Wallowa counties. He saw an opportunity to fulfill the unmet needs of various DHS program participants by reaching out to individuals via email. “We’d get requests—for example, maybe a crib or a child’s dresser. People in our community love to help their neighbors. So I started putting out an email request—here’s a kid who needs help,” he says. Filling a need The anonymous “Underground” email group was born. Evans would email out a request, someone from the group would fill the gap, and needs that otherwise would likely have gone unmet were taken care of. The Underground provided a safety net for many years, but Evans knew that while a —Continued on the back page
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