
HealthFinders Executive Director, Charlie Mandile, reflects on the close of the year and looks ahead to 2021. In many ways, 2020 was just like any other year at HealthFinders Collaborative.
We were founded 15 years ago by taking a situation for which there is no template to mobilize around our mission to ensure health care for all. We have followed this creative approach ever since. We fill gaps, we engage communities and health systems, and we bring people together to recognize our community assets and fulfill community needs. While we are in uncharted waters, we are people who thrive in the face of uncertainty and adversity. This is our DNA, and precisely what we have been doing since we opened. In the span of a couple weeks last March, our world was turned upside down. Our fundraising and operations were simultaneously upended, just when our community needed us most. As essential workers, our patients never hesitated in showing up to their work commitments. Because of this, they immediately and disproportionately bore the brunt of the impacts of COVID-19. Despite these challenges, our community reflexively mobilized. Longstanding partners stepped up without even being asked to ensure we remained on the front lines of the emergent pandemic. Our community and our partners ensured we were not only able to test, track, and communicate to our vulnerable populations, but continue to address underlying health care needs. Our community was also tragically thrust into longstanding dynamics and inequities that have been pleading for attention for years. By early 2020, our team had trained more than 300 colleagues across Rice County service agencies, schools, and local governments with our Intercultural Effectiveness Seminar. We heard time and again that people who thought they were culturally aware reached an entirely new perspective on how to navigate our diverse community. While this work is ongoing, our colleagues are more prepared than ever to navigate these challenging and important times. We moved into a landmark new facility in Faribault exactly one year ago. This move was transformative and its impact immediate. Not only did this facility enable us to stay open and on the front lines of the largest health care crisis of our generation, we were able to build new programs to meet the emergent needs of our patients. In addition to developing a robust COVID-19 testing and tracking program, we transitioned our operational infrastructure to a modern and secure cloud-based platform to never miss a beat, engaging patients, staff, and volunteers wherever they were. New programs blossomed in the midst of the pandemic. The reach of our mental health program has only grown, each month outdoing the last. Our Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opiate addiction program, developed in collaboration with social services, government, and law enforcement agencies, brought this service back to Northfield and Faribault, dramatically expanding local capacity for patients who previously drove 40-60 miles for this care. We are here for the community. We are here for people at risk throughout the region. We are here for you. Like many of us, this year has only highlighted what we have. At HealthFinders Collaborative, we are no exception. We are heartened by the strength and partnerships built in the past 15 years, and after this year it is clearer than ever that we will be here for at least 15 more.
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