Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig will travel to the White House on Wednesday to join Vice President Kamala Harris, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and other federal, state and local leaders at the White House Summit on the American Rescue Plan and the Workforce, city officials announced Monday.
While at the summit, Craig will discuss the city’s Public Health And Safety Team (PHAST), funded using State and Local Federal Relief Funds allocated to Manchester through the American Rescue Plan Act.
PHAST is a partnership between the Manchester Health Department and Manchester Police Department, which includes providing a trained Community Health Worker (CHW) to address neighborhood level health concerns.
The PHAST CHWs are multilingual and multicultural, with deep connections to the neighborhoods they serve.
Their roles include:
• Serving as a point of contact, based on mutual trust, for policy makers and residents with neighborhood concerns;
• Coordinating and mobilizing community groups to support neighborhood enhancement, engagement, and advocating for individual and community needs;
• Assisting residents with connection to available resources to more adequately and appropriately meet their needs;
• Serving as “Violence Interrupters,” which involves working with police to identify potential conflicts in the community and assist with conflict resolution and mediation;
• Serving as an alternative to police response for non-police matters that historically have been routed to police.
The White House Summit on the American Rescue Plan and the Workforce is scheduled to take place Wednesday, July 13 at 11 a.m.
