Welcome to the CROPS
Health Network Center
CROPS
Health Network Center
Jasper - LaPorte - Marshall
Pulaski and Starke County, IN
ph: (866) 843-3493
fax: (713) 960-0537
alt: Beverly Santicola, Executive Director
santicol
HOME
Welcome to the CROPS Health Network Center
The CROPS Rural Health Network Center is comprised of 18 individuals who represent local nonprofits, health care providers, higher education, and local residents to identify needs and plan activities. The group meets monthly to identify health care needs of the target population and plan activities that address unmet needs.
MISSION
The mission of the lead organization (CROPS - Center for Rural Outreach & Public Services, Inc.) is “to revitalize rural communities by empowering inter-generational individuals and organizations to work together to solve rural problems.”
To accomplish its mission, CROPS provides a variety of services to underserved people in rural communities including training in team building, resource development, collaborative problem- solving, mentorship, and project management. In March of 2005, CROPS volunteered to help the people of San Pierre revitalize their town and, through its work in the community on the San Pierre Revitalization Project, the CROPS Health Network Center project emerged. CROPS has both youth and adults serving on its Board of Directors (4 youth and 4 adults). Youth are also well represented on the San Pierre Revitalization Project Committee (3 youth and 3 adults) and Youth Leadership Committee (20 youth).
CROPS Health Network Center to Host Grant Writing Workshops
At The University of Arkansas for Medical Science and Garfield Park Conservatory
Rural America
Forty-nine million Americans live rural, with lower incomes and higher poverty and unemployment than their urban counterparts. People look to the cities for more work opportunities, schools close, communities fall into rural blight, and youth have nothing to do, becoming at-risk for destructive behaviors. Many small, rural communities have never fully recovered from the Great Depression, the advent of agribusiness, and the villages’ inability to keep pace with the technological direction that this society has turned to so rapidly. These communities, especially ones that are unincorporated, lack leadership to make change and are grossly under-served.
Barriers to Overcome
- Geographic isolation
- Resistance to change
- Significant health care professional shortages
- Lack of collaboration among existing health care organizations
- Economic decline, with resulting unemployment and inadequate insurance coverage
- Lack of technology
Goals and Purpose
Our goal (that involves 13 community agencies in planning) is to promote rural health care services outreach by expanding the delivery of health care services to include new and enhanced services in Railroad Township and the surrounding rural areas that lie in Jasper, Pulaski, and Starke Counties. The purpose is to implement a creative and effective model of outreach and service delivery to a remote rural area in Northwest Indiana called CROPS Health Center Network.
- Increase collaboration among existing health care organizations
- Increase the use of technology among existing health care organizations
- Increase the efficiency of the delivery of health care services
- Increase the sharing of resources among health service providers
- Decrease non-emergency hospital visits to the emergency room
- Increase quality of health services in the area by expanding training opportunities
- Increase confidence and usage of the area’s existing health care service
CROPS
Health Network Center
Jasper - LaPorte - Marshall
Pulaski and Starke County, IN
ph: (866) 843-3493
fax: (713) 960-0537
alt: Beverly Santicola, Executive Director
santicol
