H.O.P.E.+ Initiative

Now it is time to gather the resources for your upcoming health fair. It is important to identify what type of health services and local resources you would like to have present. In order to host a health fair event, it is essential that you have community agencies who can deliver screening health and psychosocial services planned and of interest to participants. A way to begin this process is to think about the major needs of this community, what is indispensable for you to bring to this health fair?  Once you have identified what services would be a great fit to have, you can invite local agencies to participate. Secure those services, if space and interest allow, you can add others to benefit the attendees. Prioritizing services will ensure that you are giving the population the services they need and create an important impact on people’s lives. Agencies can be contacted via telephone, email or in person visit to inform them of the planned event and seek their collaboration and support. As you meet with these agencies, provide them with a registration form [see attachment] to identify what services they will provide and formalize their commitment to participate. The registration will help you keep track of the participating agencies to maintain communication and to identify any equipment that may be needed for their station. As you think about what agencies to gather for your health fair, think about long-term collaboration and its benefit to the persons served.  Think of agencies that share similar interests and are committed to community service. 

H.O.P.E.+ Example: To provide a valuable opportunity for the El Paso community, we needed to partner with local agencies and educate ourselves on the resources available for home-free and low-income populations. Once we had assessed the needs of each area of the city, we began to contact different agencies that provided essential services. For example, dental, mental health, immunizations, women’s health, pediatrics, housing, health insurance assistance and employment. We invited each agency to attend the health fair events to provide healthcare services and/or education. We maintained communication with the local agencies and asked what services they would provide at the events. Once we received confirmation of the agency's attendance and service, this allowed us to know what services were going to be present and what services were missing that may be needed for the community. With this information, we were able to identify how many tables and chairs each agency needed. We also were able to organize the health fairs arrangement and provide a map of the event.