FOR HUMAN SERVICE PROVIDERS

Just being pregnant doesn’t flip a switch in a woman’s brain that makes her suddenly just pregnant.  If she worried before about being HIV positive, she is still  more worried about HIV than about her pregnancy.  If she is struggling with alcohol or cocaine, those struggles don’t disappear.  There may be a long list of things that she worries about before she worries about being pregnant.  So many women who most need our services do not knock on our door and do not readily open when we knock on theirs.  

Outreach workers and social workers, however, know these women and earn their trust.  So it is very important that they have the knowledge, the tools, the skills to identify risks, provide quality information, and make appropriate referrals.

Training Opportunities:

• Quarterly networking sessions at which representatives from a wide variety of agencies share information about their programs and make connections that will facilitate effective and efficient referrals.
• Quarterly “Lunch and Learn” sessions at which experts in some aspect of perinatal health present practical information that will enhance the support offered to pregnant and parenting women.
• Semi-annual mini-conferences present speakers and workshops on topics in perinatal health
• A major full-day conference each year explores a single subject in depth

For a list of planned training sessions and to get information on how to register, click here.

For resources to assist in finding services and making effective referrals, click here.

Rochester Outreach Workers Association (ROWA)

Rochester Outreach Workers Association is a group of 85 professionals who have established an organization that “seeks acknowledgement and recognition as professionals for all Outreach Workers to be unified as one to better serve our communities.”  Membership is open to frontline workers who work in the community assisting families to move towards interdependency to achieve their goals and obtain a healthier life style. 

ROWA is supported by a grant from the Perinatal Network of Monroe County.  PNMC supports ROWA because outreach workers are critical to the mission of identifying at-risk pregnant women who need prenatal care and perinatal services to help them have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby—women who are hard to reach because they are not part of mainstream systems.  All the health care facilities in the world will not produce healthy babies unless women use them, and we know that those with the greatest needs also have the greatest barriers to utilization.  For many, the frontline outreach worker is the lifeline to the system of care.

There is no cost to join. ROWA meets every other month, from noon to 1:30; meetings are held in the Bell Board Room of the Unity Health System Genesee St. Campus, 89 Genesee Street.  For information, or to get a membership application form, call Latisha Williams at 753-5070, Jackie Sweeney at 266-0021 or Lucia - 244-9000 ext. 454.