United Way Announces Community Resource Navigation Expansion

United Way of Kaw Valley (UWKV) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) announced a new partnership today that will expand community resource navigation services and help connect community members to resources to help them thrive and live healthy lives.

“We know that health is more than health care,” said Virginia Barnes, Director of Blue Health Initiatives with BCBSKS. “By increasing access to community resources through navigation, we can help ensure that Kansas communities build resilient networks to improve the health of Kansans who may not easily navigate the complex health and social systems on their own."

Through a Trailblazers grant from BCBSKS, UWKV will employ a program director and two Community Resource Navigators, one primarily serving Lawrence and the other serving Shawnee County. United Way will continue to fund a rural Community Resource Navigator in Douglas County, expanding that coverage to include Baldwin City and Lecompton as well as Eudora.

These positions will help people access a complex system of social service programs and serve as a key point of contact and source of support for community members in crisis. Navigators will help improve communication between clients and agencies, facilitate the often-complicated application process for receiving services and provide help in a way that honors every client’s culture and lived experience.

United Way has already hired a Director of Community Resource Navigation, Heather Coates of Lawrence. Applications are open for the three initial navigator positions.

UWKV CEO Jessica Lehnherr said she is proud that the groundwork for the program was laid in both the early navigation work in Douglas County and the closed-loop referral network effort in Shawnee County. “This feels like the synergy we knew was possible when we merged with United Way of Douglas County,” she said. “The time was absolutely right to build upon the years of collaboration that our Vice President of Community Impact, Brett Martin, had put in with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas.”

For more information about UWKV’s Community Resource Navigation program, please visit www.uwkawvalley.org/community-resource-navigation.