MANSFIELD — Aimee Young-Brissell held up a small poster, affixed with a mishmash of magazine cuttings and stickers representing her vision for her life.
There was a cut of baked salmon for healthy living, a book for leisure and pine trees for time in nature. Gold letters spelled out “compassion” and “worth.”
As a community health worker with the Help Me Grow program, Young-Brissell’s job is to visit pregnant women and new parents. She talks with them about their challenges, triumphs and pressing needs. She makes phone calls, connecting her clients with local and state resources. She’s a wealth of knowledge, a problem solver and occasionally, a shoulder to cry on.
It’s rewarding work. She loves seeing clients smile, knowing she’s taken a little bit off their plate.
But it’s also demanding, sometimes heartbreaking, work.
“You’re taking on other people’s problems,” said Kim Miller, one of Richland County’s longest serving community health workers.
“A lot of times we don’t have the resources that they need. You go home to your comfortable house and you know somebody’s out in the streets or they don’t have electricity or their kids don’t have food and it’s hard.”
Community health worker Kim Miller shows off her vision board during CHW day. 
Sarah Redding, who founded Community Health Access Project with her late husband Mark, addresses local community health workers. 
Nyasha Oden led a vision board session during CHAP’s 3rd Annual Community Health Worker day. 
Community health workers create their own vision boards. 
Ashley Leadingham is the training coordinator at Community Health Access Project, a Pathways Hub that works with community health workers throughout north central Ohio. 
‘We know the work is challenging’
That’s why Community Health Access Project (CHAP) hosted a day of self-care for CHWs last week. The event was open to CHWs from across Richland, Ashland, Crawford, Huron, Morrow and Knox counties.
As a Pathways Hub, CHAP works with the numerous agencies that employ CHWs throughout the region.
“We know that the work is challenging,” said Ashley Leadingham, CHAP’s training coordinator.
“I think often people are very appreciative, but we’re so wrapped up in the day-to-day that we don’t take the time to really focus on gratitude for the work that they do.”’
Leadingham described CHWs as the real-life superheroes of the community.
“Ultimately our goal is to bring our communities to a better place of overall health and empower people to find the resources and navigate their lives on their own terms,” she said.
Community Health Worker Day started with a vision board session led by Nyasha Oden. Oden armed participants with magazines and stickers, encouraging them to create a visual representation of their goals.
As the program director for foster care ministry New Mercy Outreach, Oden works regularly with CHWs. She can also testify to their impact in her own life.
“I was a teen mother and so I had my own CHW through the Help Me Grow program,” Oden said.
“It was just great to have somebody that actually listened, that cared and that helped me receive the services and resources that I needed at that time.”
That CHW, Brenda Alexander, is still at work in Richland County.
“She was amazing back then and she’s amazing now,” Oden said.
CHWs also received lunch and certificates in recognition of their years of service during the CHAP event. Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry read a proclamation in honor of Community Health Worker Day.
Numerous CHWs said they appreciated the event.
“For me, it’s really nice to be taken care of, because in my professional life and then in my personal life, I’m taking care of everyone else,” Young-Brissell said.
“So often I forget to take time for myself. Being poured into from someone else is really, really lovely.”
