2017 CIIP Program Book 2017 CIIP Program Book | Page 15

Community Partner: Charm City Care Connection
Intern: Yamini Patibandla
Site Supervisor: Tulha Siddiqi
What is Charm City Care Connection?
We believe that connection creates community. We do this by building long term partnerships
between volunteers and community residents, empowering both parties to learn from each other
as they work to promote health and well-being within Baltimore’s fragmented healthcare system.
"My time at Charm City Care Connection was an eye-opening opportunity to understand the
growing social injustices in our city, especially in access to healthcare, and the small, but powerful
strides my group was making to address the problem. Before we launched our rebranding
campaign, I thought Charm City Clinic was similar to the other clinics I worked at by directly
providing medical services for community members. I saw this as the only way to improve health
outcomes of our community. Within my first week however, this belief was thrown out the window
as I was exposed to the group’s efforts to connect our clients to health resources in the city by
focusing instead on the access component of healthcare. This summer my mission was to spread
the word. Not only did we change our name but we added another clinic location. We needed to
tell local community members about this, so I focused my time with community outreach events
and rebranding efforts. At block parties, community health and resource fairs, I met community
members who approached us with very specific requests. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, many
whom we met had health insurance, but some were struggling to resolve issues with bill payment,
housing, mental health counseling and even SNAP enrollment. When we directed them to our clinic
locations and I saw them the week after at clinic, I started to see our network grow and our efforts
strengthen. With our rebranding plan, I had to dig up design skills from high school to use Adobe
Illustrator at the DMC. Although I spent some time in my internship outside of the community, i