On Monday, November 10th, MAPPR held an event at the Midwood International and Cultural Center to announce the launch of an online directory of resources available to underserved communities here in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The directory arose as a direct result of research MAPPR has done in the community.
"We had funding from Robert Wood Johnson in which we evaluated barriers to getting healthcare," says Research Coordinator Brisa Hernandez. "During the course of this research we were hearing from the community that there was no centralized place to look for resources that were available to underserved members of Charlotte-Mecklenburg."
MAPPR team members spoke to community members to try to address this issue via a new intervention, and together it was determined that a database needed to be built that contained this needed healthcare information. As the intervention progressed, MAPPR partnered with two other local organizations - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee and Community Building Initiative - to attempt to build something more comprehensive that addressed healthcare as well as other services such as legal assistance, social services, and child care.
After years of work - the Mecklenburg Access Portal (The MAP), as the project has been named, is ready for public use. So far more than 80 organizations have posted their information on the portal.
"We are excited to already have so many great organizations on board," says MAP Community Engagement Coordinator Brant Aycock. "Our hope is that other organizations serving these communities will want to participate as well."
Roughly 50 community members and representatives from organizations attended the launch event on November 10th. Attendees first heard from MAPPR Director of Research Michael Dulin and CRC Executive Director Willie Ratchford before enjoying a demonstration of the MAP.
If you or your organization would like to learn more about the Mecklenburg Access Portal (The MAP), please contact Brant Aycock at Brant.Aycock@carolinashealthcare.org.
