A ViM INTERVIEW: Behind the scenes with Community Health Worker America Lopez

America Lopez, a Mexican immigrant, has spent half her life in the Berkshires. One of ViM’s Community Health Workers, she is also part of our Newcomer Groups team, which aims to foster a sense of belonging for new patients. From 2021 to 2023, America served as the parent liaison for Berkshire Hills Regional School District immigrant families, helping newcomers adapt to the U.S. education system.

If you’ve ever met America, you know the compassion, skill, and joy she brings to ViM’s office and to the community. For the past four years, America has volunteered for Latinas413, organizing hikes, camping trips, and reading circles. She serves on the board of Flying Cloud and is part of the Community Engagement committee at Jacob's Pillow. She is also a member of the Spanish Language Advisory Group at the Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC) and has recently joined the Culture Connect mentorship committee for the Railroad Youth Street Project (RSYP).

In our interview, we talk about her journey from patient to Community Health Worker, her proudest accomplishments at ViM, and the ways our patients push ViM to be more than just another clinic.

Interview conducted by Sarah Trudgeon. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

To start off, America, could you tell me where you are from, and how you first got involved with ViM? 

Originally I’m from just outside Mexico City. About nine years ago, I heard about ViM from a friend and came here as a patient. During the pandemic, I decided I needed to start volunteering.  

Then in August of 2021, I became a paid family liaison, 20 hours a week, between the Berkshire Hills Regional School District and local immigrant families, a pilot program set up by ViM and the district. The other 20 hours I was a part-time Community Health Worker in the office, helping [Community Health Workers] Natalia and Marcela with things like completing applications for financial assistance. I remember that was one of the first things that I ever did for ViM.

Can you talk a little more about that family liaison position? 

It was an idea that Ilana and Peter Dillon came up with, because for years ViM had been an unofficial liaison between immigrant families and the school. The official program allowed us to focus specifically on supporting these families who were also ViM patients and use ViM as a resource, since we understood where they were coming from, what their barriers were, and what kind of support they needed.

That’s an idea central to ViM, that if organizations work with each other, and if they employ people who are part of the communities they serve, they can provide more effective services.  

Ilana talks about this all the time. Scaffolding.  

Right! So you were the family liaison for two years, and now you’re a full-time Community Health Worker. 

Yes. Our CHW team is like a bridge for patients as they enter various systems, like health, banking, school, or legal systems. At the very first appointment, we assess the areas where we can support patients to have a better chance to establish themselves quickly in the area. Maybe they have family nearby and only need a few things. Maybe they're ready to start English classes or start a business. Or maybe they are new to everything and need more support. With the assessments we try to match the person's navigation skill level and need to the resources available. 

Another big part of what we do is serve the patients’ families. We don't provide health care for children, but we connect them with pediatricians and dentists. We help them enroll in school and connect with any services they need, like an IEP, English learning support, or speech therapy. We help them enroll in after-school activities and summer camp. We make sure patients know about the services and resources that could benefit their children.

Some of these services and resources might be obvious to most people, but almost invisible to a newcomer. And I bet there are other systems that feel opaque to everyone!

We are always learning, and our patients are the best teachers. They’ll ask about something they need or are looking for, and we may not have the answers, but here at ViM, we are like, “I'm gonna Google, I'm gonna ask around,” and when we find the answer, it’s like, all right, so now this is the process. We learn about the resource and help them apply for it or connect them with someone who can help. That excites me a lot about this position—we are constantly challenged, which helps us become more knowledgeable for the next person. 

I’m always in awe at this aspect of ViM. The answer is never just, “I don't know, good luck.” It’s like, if there’s a problem, or something we don’t know, let’s find the answer!  

Yes, and if we don’t know something, we can reach out. We don't work in isolation—we are always building networks of support so that we can serve better the person who is in front of us. 

The work that we do here is a community effort. It's the donors, it's the volunteers, it’s the agencies we work with, and it's the patients, who come here and trust us with their lives and the lives of their families. They might come in with no idea what we do, but once they talk to us they realize, “Oh my God, this is more than a health care center. I can actually get all this information about these resources, and I even can get connected to an immigration lawyer.”

You can see the relief in their faces, because they’ve finally gotten to someone who’s not going to say, “No, sorry, we're not going to help you with that.” Without our patients’ questions, without them trusting us with their care, we’d be just another clinic, but they push us to learn more, to do more, and to care for them better, in a cycle that repeats. 

It’s a revolutionary idea, that when patients can trust you, they can ask questions that maybe nobody in the community at all is asking, because they were scared or didn’t know where to turn. When there’s a place where people can open up, we’re able to discover fractures in our systems and learn how to strengthen them for everyone. It reminds me of your family liaison position at the school. Does that position still exist, or did it end with the pilot? 

When I was doing that job, I learned what an important role it was for the school, but the grant was only for two years. I wanted to do something so that somebody else could take the position when I left. I had a mentor in Springfield, José, who talked to me about creating a parent group, now the English Learner Partner Advisory Council, to use our voices and advocate for a permanent position that didn't depend on grant funding. We put together a letter, including the data that supported our position, and requested a meeting with the school committee.  

I was actually very, very happy because it wasn't only me, it was also the parents saying, “We need this, we have seen the difference it’s made.” And when the committee said yes, it made a difference in how parents felt about school. They felt that they had support. Now Marta Escobar is in that position, and this is her second year.  

I’m so proud of the parents—they are doing such a great job—and I'm proud of helping create that group so that they can come together on their own and come up with their own ideas about how the schools can better serve their students. That’s really the goal: not only to advocate for patients, but to build them up so they can advocate for themselves. They are still going strong—it is amazing.