More than 30 people, including several leaders from the Omaha Hispanic community, joined Interim Chancellor Dele Davies, MD, and other UNMC colleagues last week for a community conversation.
The meeting, hosted at the Latino Center of the Midlands, provided an opportunity to discuss initiatives and priorities for improving the health and health care of residents of South Omaha. Albert Varas, CEO of the Latino Center, said the conversation provided an opportunity for UNMC and influential figures from South Omaha to engage with each other.
“We’re grateful to Dr. Davies and many others at UNMC for their genuine interest in ensuring the health and progress of those who live in South Omaha,” Varas said. “These in-person meetings provide a means for community leaders to discuss areas of opportunity with UNMC and each other; to hear about new initiatives at UNMC; and to chart a path forward that ultimately will improve the lives of those in our communities.”
Varas is a member of the UNMC Board of Counselors, a statewide advisory group to Dr. Davies and other UNMC leaders. Two other members of the Board of Counselors – Cesar Garcia, executive director of Canopy South, and Cesar Godinez, senior project manager of CBRE who serves as board chair of the Latino Center – also attended the community conversation.
Additional groups represented included the Heartland Workers Center, OneWorld Community Health Centers, South Omaha Community Care Council, Metro Community College, the Consulate of Mexico in Omaha, the Douglas County Health Department and others.
Dr. Davies said the conversation provided another opportunity to listen to community members’ experiences and to make connections to existing UNMC resources.
“We recognize that UNMC has an important role in supporting our South Omaha partners in jointly solving problems that impact the community,” Dr. Davies said. “We will continue to strive to do all we can to jointly meet the needs expressed here today.”
As in other communities that he has visited during his first several months as interim chancellor, Dr. Davies said, South Omaha leaders expressed the need for a stable health care workforce to serve the community.
Dr. Davies noted that Omaha South High School is among the top feeder programs to the UNMC High School Alliance, which provides health care education experience to high school juniors and seniors. In addition to workforce, other discussion points included mass transportation needs; pathway programs; effective mentoring and role-modeling for first-generation college students; appropriate language translation for health care patients; leadership development; science advocacy; and other topics.
“We are happy to continue the dialogue and to partner on the initiatives where we can make a difference,” Dr. Davies said. “Today wasn’t the conclusion of this conversation; for us to truly move the needle, we need to continue to make connections to move this important partnership forward.”
In addition to the community conversation, Dr. Davies also toured OneWorld Community Health Center with CEO Andrea Skolkin and Communications Director Erik Servellon.
“It was inspiring to witness the passion and dedication of the entire OneWorld team in serving the diverse needs of those within our communities,” Dr. Davies said. “I commend them for their state-of-the-art practices and look forward to future collaborations that will further enhance the training of tomorrow’s health care professionals.”
I am pleased to see UNMC’s continued commitment to helping improve health outcomes and helping assure we bring about health equity in both urban and rural underserved communities.