From Vaccines to Diabetes Screenings to Barber Shop Therapy, Wake County Public Health Comes to You
Success StoriesIn Wake County, North Carolina, public health teams are committed to meeting people where they are and making it easier for all residents to access services. Lechelle Wardell, Population Health Director with Wake County Public Health, shares how the county is using Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) funding to expand community-based services and build stronger connections with residents. Through mini-grants to grassroots and faith-based organizations, the county is empowering trusted local partners to reach communities more effectively.
With their Wake Wheels for Health mobile unit, Wake County brings essential services to neighborhoods across the county — from childhood vaccines and chronic disease screenings to health education and injury prevention. The mobile unit, staffed by community health workers, helps residents access care and resources without barriers like transportation or cost.
Lechelle also highlights innovative efforts like Barber Shop Therapy, which trains barbers and stylists to share mental health resources and connect clients to support in a setting where trust already exists. By meeting people where they are, Wake County is helping every resident live their healthiest lives.
Video Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
How have you been able to use PHIG funding?
So, in Wake County, we are using our A2 side of the grant to expand our services in the community. We do that through mini grants: we offer grants to community partners, faith-based organizations, and nonprofit organizations to implement their services—grassroots, boots-on-the-ground, meeting people where they are.
Additionally, we have funded eight community health workers who are out in the community connecting our residents to essential resources that they need across the county, then following up with them to make sure they’re actually getting the support and resources they need.
What services do you offer?
Wake Wheels for Health is our public health mobile unit. We take it out to health fairs and health events, and we bring any of the services we offer in public health. It could be our HIV/STI prevention services, maternal and child health, giving away car seats and instructing folks on how to use them, and more.
This past weekend, we went out and had our Safe Routes to School team join us with the mini-bus. They teach kids about bike safety, helmet safety, and injury prevention. With Wake Wheels for Health, we go wherever we’re asked to go, wherever we’re called or invited, we take the mini-bus out — and it’s accompanied by our community health workers. In addition to providing educational services, we connect residents with community health workers who link them to needed resources and services.
We just got approval for our CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) certification, and now we’ll also be offering screenings with Wake Wheels for Health. We go to where people are — it’s mobilizing public health and taking it to where our residents live in our county.
How is this promoting health at all ages?
One of the things we’re doing right now is taking Wake Wheels for Health out to provide childhood vaccines. It’s back-to-school time, and everyone is trying to get their children vaccinated before they go back to school. In the past, families had to come to us — to the clinics or to their medical providers — but now, with Wake Wheels for Health, we can take it to where people are, so we can make sure they’re getting life-saving vaccines before they get to school.
In addition to childhood vaccines, we also have the ability with Wake Wheels for Health to do life-saving screenings. We’re out there doing blood pressure checks, diabetes screenings, and cholesterol screenings. This gives our residents an opportunity to check their levels and potentially get into life-saving care before there are lifelong consequences.
How is Wake County meeting people where they are?
Our residents are so diverse, and our county is large. We have over a million people in our county across 12 municipalities. Not everyone can get to our building to receive services, even though we have local regional Health and Human Services centers where folks can come and get services – we only have five of them. We also have transportation access issues in our county, we have housing access challenges in our county…so we try not to make people work to get the services they need — we come right to them.
One of the things I’m most proud of that we do with our PHIG grant is getting funding out to our grassroots partners — again, meeting folks where they are. We know they know their communities better than anybody else. These service providers and grassroots organizations know where people are, they have the trust of their communities, and they are able to expand the work we’re doing in public health.
Some specific examples of mini-grants we’ve funded include Barber Shop Therapy. That’s where residents who go to barbershops connect with barbers and stylists trained to share mental health information and resources. When I go to my stylist, we engage in deep conversation. What better place to get mental health resources than somewhere where you know you’re going to go anyway, with somebody you trust and feel comfortable with? I’m really excited about that program and what we’ve been able to do. And – we’re also working internally to reduce barriers for small organizations to receive funds.