Community Health Center advocates across the country have been incredibly active in meeting with their members of Congress by either traveling to DC for NACHC’s fly-ins or by meeting with them during in-district work periods (also known as “recess”). There are unique opportunities during in-district visits and meetings for members of Congress and their staff to see firsthand the impact of health centers.
Members of Congress will soon be making decisions that impact health center funding. During this time, there will be two upcoming in-district work periods on April 14-25 and May 26-30 that health centers can leverage to host their elected officials. The best time to send a scheduling request is 3-4 weeks before your proposed meeting date. Get started now and begin the process of scheduling a visit. Use the resources at the end of this blog.
Advantages of in-district meetings
Members of Congress have more time to learn about how health centers provide quality, accessible, and cost-efficient care to their constituents. Lexy Eggert, Chief Development and Strategy Officer at Horizon Health in South Dakota, shared, “Hosting our congressional leadership at one of our health center sites is a great opportunity for them to interact with health center staff and engage with our front-line leaders, who are living the health center mission every day.”
Additionally, health center leaders can show how investments in health centers impact the overall health and economic vitality of their community. Community Health Development, Inc. (CHDI) in Texas recently opened a new site, which was the perfect opportunity to host their members of Congress. As Mayela Castañon, CEO of CHDI, said, “We were honored to have Congressman Chip Roy attend and speak at our Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting at our new Rolling Hills Health site in Leakey. We greatly appreciate his support for the growth of healthcare in rural Texas.”
She and her team partnered with the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) for the grand opening and visit. Jana Eubank, CEO of TACHC, highlighted that these visits allow people to learn that health centers provide more than medical care to their constituents and community.
Eubank shared: “Inviting stakeholders and elected officials to your health center is the best way to showcase in real time all the amazing work that happens at our Community Health Centers. It is a great opportunity to create a visual understanding of everything that health centers provide in addition to health care services. Health centers create jobs, work with partners to provide food, transportation, and other services to improve the overall health outcomes in our communities. Elected officials and stakeholders need to see it in action to grasp the importance of our mission.”
Preparing for upcoming in-district work periods
Now’s the time to start planning for how to take advantage of the two upcoming in-district work periods on April 14-25 and May 26-30 when health centers can host their elected officials. The best time to send a scheduling request is 3-4 weeks before your proposed meeting date.
NACHC Resource: Download NACHC’s Toolkit for Hosting In-District Visits and Meetings to assist your planning and outreach to host members of Congress. This step-by-step guide has templates and resources you and your health center team can use to plan and prepare for an impactful visit with your members of Congress.
Notify NACHC if you are hosting a member of Congress: Please use this form to inform NACHC of upcoming meetings with members of Congress. This will allow NACHC to provide support to you and your health center.
To date, NACHC has received feedback on 30 meetings that took place in March, so please take a moment to complete this form if you’ve met with your member of Congress. For the April in-district work period, NACHC has a goal of 50 health centers reporting visits and sharing feedback on how the visits went.
Please continue to partner with us to amplify health center priorities with members of Congress as they make critical decisions that impact over 32.5 million health center patients. If you have any questions, please reach out to NACHC Grassroots Advocacy team at [email protected].