Healthy Savannah Partners with Chatham Area Transit to Share Hero Help Me Resources
Wednesday, April 19th, 2023
Healthy Savannah is offering Chatham Area Transit riders a new opportunity to connect with affordable options for healthy food, recreation, and health services throughout Chatham County. In partnership with the local transit authority, the non-profit organization has installed posters in all of the Chatham Area Transit buses featuring a QR code that, when read by a smartphone camera, instantly connects riders with the Hero Help Me database.
“Chatham Area Transit strives to get people to the places they want and need to go, and that includes access to necessary health benefits in the Savannah-Chatham County community,” said Executive Director/CEO Faye DiMassimo. “CAT is honored to promote the H.E.R.O. database and partner with organizations like Healthy Savannah which are doing the work to make health benefits equitable and accessible for all.”
The bus card project is also made possible through the CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant, administered by the YMCA of Coastal Georgia and Healthy Savannah.
Officially called the Health Effective Resource Organizations, or H.E.R.O., database, the online health and social services network offers Savannah-Chatham County residents a one-stop powerhouse of resources, agencies and programs across 57 categories with the aim of closing the referral loop and empowering those living in low-income neighborhoods to be their own health heroes with access to a one-stop, all-inclusive resource.
“The purpose of the REACH grant is to eliminate disparities in health outcomes based on race and income in Savannah and Chatham County,” said Paula Kreissler, Healthy Savannah’s executive director. “Some disparities exist simply because some people in these priority populations are unaware of or don’t know how to connect with the clinical and community resources that can improve their nutrition, physical health and access to medical services such as immunizations. Our mission is to minimize those missed opportunities.”
The database was developed and is managed by St. Joseph’s/ Candler African-American Health Information and Resource Center. It is also partially funded by the REACH grant. Since launching in 2020, Hero Help Me has grown from hosting 600 agency partners to 1500. Monthly site visits have grown from 600 to around 9,000.
“Hero Help Me is a tremendous jewel in our community that we have a duty to promote,” said Lillian Grant-Baptiste, chair of Healthy Savannah. "We know knowledge is power but, more importantly, applied knowledge is power. This helps folks learn and have knowledge about the various resources and programs that perhaps they may have never known about.”
The new bus cards use pictographs that might help those who may not fluently speak or read English better understand how to access the database and its resources. Riders can scan a QR code on the poster that takes them directly to the website or directly enter the URL “herohelpme.com” in their web browser.
