[Piano softly playing] [Tracy Barnes Malone] Hello. My name is Tracy Barnes Malone. I'm a Black woman, independent, very compassionate and very concerned about my community members. I currently work for Hopkins as a community outreach program advisor, but I volunteer for a whole lot of different programs because this is something that I enjoy. People, especially in the area that we were serving, in East Baltimore, a lot of people say they don't want to do stuff with their lives or improve their lives. I think, to me, it's just because they don't know what to do. So assisting them to improve the well-being of their lives, it's just so rewarding. Since I've been a CHW in 2013, it's not that I just changed the consumers' lives, it's changed my life. [Piano music fades] In 2013, STAR, Sisters Together and Reaching, started a pilot program with John Hopkins. We had five CHWs and one supervisor. I was actually one of the first CHWs that was on that pilot program. That program was so successful. We only serviced Medicaid patients during that time, and we only worked in three zip codes, but that program was so successful that in 2016, they expanded it. We went to seven area hospitals and expanded it to 23 zip codes. We had 20 CHWs, two supervisors, and a director. At that time, I was a supervisor. So what we were doing made an impact not only for the patients, but also for the hospitals in terms of cost of care. Patients in these areas were using the emergency room for primary care because they didn't know how to navigate the healthcare system. We were hands-on helping them set up appointments for primary care doctors, specialists step-by-step, and on the telephone, being on hold, because if we didn't stay on hold for the patients, the patients wouldn't make their own appointments. We found a primary care provider for many patients and also went to the appointments with them. We didn't actually hold their hands, but we guided them along towards better well-being. We applied for health insurance for the uninsured, food supplement programs, affordable housing, and even assisted with getting government telephones because most of them didn't have one. Patients still called us on a daily basis because we made such an impact in their lives. The work wasn't difficult, especially for me. A lot of people would have problems because we went into some deplorable conditions on home visits. When I go into people houses, I make sure I don't make any facial expressions that could be seen as judgmental. I remember visiting a lady that was so depressed that her house was really in a disarray. She urinated in her living room floor, spilled food was all over the house. We sat in a chair and it was soaking wet with urine. I still stayed and I talked with the patient. I completed my assessment because I knew there was a problem. I never said I'm a fix-it person. I'm just guided by the Holy Spirit. I just wanted to be one of the people that could contribute to making her life better. The assessment went over everything, medication, healthcare, care teams, if you had one. It really went into depth into a person's life, like if they were seeing a psych doctor or if they socialized. I stayed at her house for two and a half hours because I knew she needed me. STAR didn't send me to her house, John Hopkins did, because that's where we had our roster of patients that we had to see. God sent me to her house to be of assistance and service to her at that time. We assigned a primary care provider for her and we went to the appointment together. We set up all her specialty doctors. Then I helped her clean her house up. As time went on, she became vibrant. She moved into her new place and started to flourish. I heard from her last year, and she's doing much better. Now, she can smile. When I met her, she was pouting and hiding her face out of shame. She was in a dark place and we were going to get her out of that hole. That was just one client. At STAR, our caseload varied from like 80 to 125 patients at a time. My caseload always was the heaviest, so I was on a 125. Most people asked about your skills. This job requires an innate skill along with professional skills. STAR does intensive training that we must complete: motivational speaking, CPR, mental health, first aid, NARCAN training. The list goes on and on. Reverend Hickman, the founder of STAR, is consistent with annual trainings. STAR has been around for 30 years, starting out in a church, helping women and children who had HIV. I guess being a CHW and it was so rewarding to me, I used to come home and talk about how happy I was that this was my job now, and my daughter listened to me. Kenya Ferguson, she's 36, she followed me to STAR. I guess the love for interacting and helping people is implanted in her. She loves it like I do. Kenya's care team when she was collaborating with John Hopkins allowed her to make decisions about clients on their caseload. The behavioral health specialist and the care team manager from Hopkins would let her run the whole case because she's really good.