The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights recently announced the launch of its Immigrant Health Academy. The goal of the initiative is to train community leaders in Cook, Will, DuPage and Lake counties in areas with high immigrant populations to educate immigrants about their health care rights and correct ideas false information on access to healthcare.

Jose Vera, executive director of ICIRR’s partner organization Southwest Suburban Immigrant Project, said making sure immigrant communities understand their rights to health care is especially critical as residents are always on the move. in the COVID pandemic.

“During the pandemic, it became much more obvious that this was such a huge need, especially as many of our families were interacting with hospitals,” Vera said. “Our hope is that when people come to the hospital or when they seek health care in general, they know what their main rights are, and that includes having access to someone who speaks the language with them. which you feel comfortable knowing that if you are looking for help in the hospital that you have the right to get financial help after the fact, and just basic information like this that can be very common for some of us, but not for all of us.

Vera says the initiative, which ICIRR describes as the first of its kind in the country, can serve as a roadmap for other communities.

“We hope other cities replicate some of this because we believe healthcare is a human right, so everyone should have access to it.”