The West Philadelphia Health Access Coalition
topic area
Access to Care
grant recipients
Drexel, Main Line Health, Penn Medicine, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Spectrum Health Services, Together for West Philadelphia
description
Beginning in the Summer of 2024, local nonprofit Together for West Philadelphia (T4WP) and AHE joined forces to convene key partners — including AHE representatives from Drexel University, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Penn Medicine, and Spectrum Health — to facilitate access to care for West Philadelphians. Through this collaboration, the West Philadelphia Health Access Coalition was born.
The Coalition is a place-based solution to address disparities in healthcare access, filling a needed gap and creating a new model for sustainable, community-led care. The Coalition’s first initiative is the Together for West Philadelphia Health Access Links (T4WP HEALS) project. The goal of T4WP HEALS is to create easy pathways to primary and specialty care by utilizing trained Health Ambassadors, some of whom are community members within the T4WP trusted venue network. These ambassadors will help to connect residents in need to Community Health Workers (CHWs) who can work with referred individuals to establish primary and specialty care, navigate health
insurance, and/or mitigate barriers to care.
The T4WP HEALs project officially launched in March of 2025 with 10 community-based partners serving as trusted venue sites and 3 health systems providing CHWs to assist in referrals for community members.
status
internvention phase
impact
50+ referrals
9 Trusted Venues onboarded
26 Health Ambassadors trained
3 healthcare partners employing dedicated CHWs
5 CHWs helping people connect to care
$575,000 raised for 3 years
looking ahead
The HEALS project operates across multiple health systems, which provides a unique opportunity to share learnings across institutions. The Coalition will regularly convene CHWs and Community Ambassadors, helping to facilitate unprecedented collaboration among West Philadelphia-based health systems and community-based organizations. Additionally, this model of work can be replicated in new neighborhoods with other local partners and health systems, adjusting to meet the needs of specific communities across Philadelphia.