Rayén Estrada Astroza

During my Chuck Green Fellowship, I worked with Aquí Para Tí / Here For You, a clinic-based development program for Latino youth and their families. Aquí Para Tí is located within Hennepin Healthcare’s Whittier Clinic, serving the surrounding community in the Whittier Neighborhood and beyond. They provide healthcare services, ranging from routine check-ups to comprehensive parent coaching, reproductive health, and culturally responsive therapy. A majority of the Whittier neighborhood identifies as Latino, yet only Aquí Para Tí offers healthcare services fully in Spanish.

Aquí Para Tí was the first organization I reached out to, as I admired their Behavioral Health Home model. Under this model, when a Latino adolescent comes to the clinic, their parents and siblings are also interviewed and provided with healthcare services when needed. Aquí Para Tí understands that a culturally responsive approach to healthcare means seeing a patient as a whole person, and that entails understanding their family context.

Over the course of the summer, I worked with the entire Aquí Para Tí team. My main project was creating a series of guides for parents, written in Spanish, on topics such as ‘Helping Your Child Go to College’ and ‘Latino Values for Resilience,’ which are now provided to patients. Other projects involved managing social media communications, helping organize the 25th anniversary celebration, and supporting ongoing research. Yet my favorite project was facilitating community health circles, which involved direct engagement with the Latino community.

I will never forget the lesson that all the amazing professionals working at Aquí Para Tí gave me: good healthcare services begin with trust. Finding a way to provide that trust, such as a fully Spanish-speaking clinic, is certainly a great beginning.